‘They Don’t Do Free Speech’: Dr. Phil Rips Harvard After President Keeps Job Despite Disastrous Testimony
Harold Hutchison on December 12, 2023
Former daytime TV talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw ripped Harvard University after the Ivy League school’s president retained her job despite a disastrous performance at a congressional hearing.
Claudine Gay received support from the board of Harvard University following congressional testimony where she refused to say whether students and applicants would be held accountable for using phrases like “from the river to the sea,” which has connotations of wiping out Israel, Reuters reported. During the testimony, Gay and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology invoked free speech principles in defense of anti-Jewish protests that occurred on their campuses.
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“They wouldn’t know free speech if it came up and bit them in the ass, because this is something that, as you pointed out, FIRE puts them 248 out of 248,” McGraw told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “They had to set up an entire new category for them they were so abysmal at it. And they don’t do free speech. They do their speech.”
Harvard ranked dead last for “speech climate” in The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2024 College Free Speech Rankings. It is the only educational institution to receive an “abysmal” rating.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave Harvard an “abysmal” rating on “speech climate,” making it the lowest ranked university out of 248 universities,
McGraw also blasted universities for not addressing antisemitic incidents beyond the protests.
“Not a lawyer, I don’t mean to brag but I’m not, but there are exceptions to free speech,” McGraw added. “You can’t incite people to violence, you can’t target someone with specific threats which they are doing but still we’re not talking about speech here. We’re talking about actions.”
“They are blocking, impeding people’s path to their classes,” McGraw said. “They are going in and disrupting their classes. Going into the library and intimidating these students, and they are saying, oh, well, that doesn’t violate our policies.”
University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill resigned under pressure after the school lost a $100 million donation following her testimony.
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