{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=4F5B26D6-A354-43A8-96F1-D7A44D7108F3", "McConnell: College Radicals Entitled To Opinions, Not Donors", "2023-10-31", "2023", "2023-10", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding anti-Semitism on college campuses:\n\n\u201cI spoke recently about alarming reactions to the October 7th attacks coming from America\u2019s top universities.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen student radicals spew outright hate, and campus leaders respond with agonizing, equivocating statements.\n\n\u201cBut it appears that neither thickheaded young activists nor mealy-mouthed administrators can hold a candle to university faculties when it comes to moral obtuseness. So here are a few examples.\n\n\u201cAfter a student group at Columbia University published a letter describing Hamas\u2019 savage attacks as the, \u2018struggle for freedom\u2019 of \u2018occupied peoples [who] have the right to resist occupation,\u2019 over 100 faculty members signed a letter of their own, expressing a desire to, quote, \u2018preserve Columbia University as a beacon for \u2018fostering critical thinking and opening minds to different points of view.\u2019\n\n\u201cNeedless to say, I\u2019m a staunch supporter of the First Amendment. People are entitled to different points of view. But they aren\u2019t entitled to different facts. And the only group that\u2019s occupied Gaza since 2007 is Hamas.\n\n\u201cBesides, America\u2019s higher education system has a long way to go when it comes to protecting free speech and fostering diverse viewpoints. Just ask any right-of-center academic!\n\n\u201cBut of all places to start on their journey toward freedom of expression, they chose to celebrate terrorism.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania is facing a donor revolt over campus protests and an anti-Semitic literary festival that predated October 7th. But that didn\u2019t stop the local chapter of, essentially, its professors\u2019 union from issuing a six-page letter denouncing the University administration\u2019s pro-Israel views.\n\n\u201cThe school\u2019s painfully nuanced attempts at moral equivalency are, apparently, an \u2018erasure\u2019 of Palestinian voices. Donors\u2019 outrage at radical calls for a pogrom are \u2018coercive threats\u2019 that demand their removal from all university boards.\n\n\u201cMr. President, let\u2019s remember who\u2019s doing the aggressing here. There\u2019s an open FBI investigation into online threats encouraging the murder of Jewish students at Cornell University.\n\n\u201cThe University has had to bring in police to help protect the Kosher dining hall on campus. And many Jewish students are opting to stay in their rooms for safety.\n\n\u201cUntil recently, the tenured left-wing apparatchiks of America\u2019s elite universities might have expected donors to keep on writing checks, no matter which sort of unhinged, post-modern hate they ginned up.\n\n\u201cWell, not anymore.\n\n\u201cAt Penn, one alumnus\u2019s call to boycott the school has spread like wildfire, precipitating a crisis that by one account could put a billion-dollar hole in the University\u2019s books.\n\n\u201cAt least a dozen CEOs have pledged not to hire any members of the Harvard student groups who blamed Israel for the murder of its children.\n\n\u201cAnd elite law firms have started rescinding job offers from law students who regurgitate terrorist talking points. Some are even competing with each other to fund relief efforts in Israel.\n\n\u201cSo activist professors are entitled to their own opinions. But money is also protected speech, and they aren\u2019t entitled to donors\u2019 pocketbooks.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s not how the real world works.\n\n\u201cAmerica and our allies have woken up from a \u2018holiday from history.\u2019 American business and philanthropists are starting to do the very same thing.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s hope it continues.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:43:12Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=4F5B26D6-A354-43A8-96F1-D7A44D7108F3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1697948686778545, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}