Harvard University is distancing itself from GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik after she promoted unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
Dean Douglas Elmendorf, the dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School, sent a letter to the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of Politics on Tuesday announcing that the Republican congresswoman from New York was removed from the panel after she “declined to step aside.”
He wrote that the request for Stefanik to remove herself “was not about political parties, political ideology, or her choice of candidate for president” but rather that it had more do with his “assessment” that she “made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect.”
Stefanik, a graduate of the Ivy League school in 2006, said in a statement that she is the latest conservative in a “long line of leaders who have been boycotted, protested, and canceled by colleges and universities across America.”
“The decision by Harvard’s administration to cower and cave to the woke Left will continue to erode diversity of thought, public discourse, and ultimately the student experience,” she added. “The Ivory Tower’s march toward a monoculture of like-minded, intolerant liberal views demonstrates the sneering disdain for everyday Americans and will instill a culture of fear for students who will understand that a conservative viewpoint will not be tolerated and will be silenced.”
The congresswoman did not address the point that she promoted claims of widespread fraud that have been dismissed by federal and state officials, as well as rejected by the courts.
Stefanik, an ardent supporter of the president, was a part of a coalition of Republicans who voted against President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. That process was interrupted by hundreds of rioters breaching the U.S. Capitol after Trump encouraged supporters to march on the building.
