A Republican member of Congress said on Tuesday that he had undergone a “rite of passage and medal of honor” and accused Harvard University of “giving in to the awake left” after it lost an advisory role by perpetuating the groundless allegations of widespread electoral fraud of Donald Trump.
New York City deputy Elise Stefanik was removed from a senior advisory committee at Harvard’s government school after refusing to voluntarily resign, according to Douglas Elmendorf, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School.
Hundreds of students and alumni asked Harvard to sever ties with Stefanik, a Harvard graduate in 2006, after the violent uprising on the United States Capitol, which Trump prompted last week.
Stefanik was among 147 Republicans who objected to the certification of Joe Biden’s election, even after the attack left five dead.
She condemned the protesters, but repeated false claims about “unprecedented voting irregularities” in the presidential election.
Until Harvard took action, Stefanik was one of about a dozen current civil servants and former employees of a senior advisory committee at the Policy Institute, a program that was intended to get undergraduate students interested in careers in public service.
In a statement, Stefanik said: “The Harvard administration’s decision to shrink and give in to the left will continue to erode the diversity of thinking, public speaking and, ultimately, the student experience.”
Elmendorf said the decision was not based on political ideology.
“Instead, in my assessment, Elise made public statements about electoral fraud in the November presidential election that are not based on evidence, and she made public statements about election-related lawsuits that are incorrect.”
Stefanik, who represents a district in upstate New York, was re-elected for a fourth term in November.