{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=ECCB1D54-9A0C-435B-953D-2EC592DB87DF", "Higher Ed. Faces Consequences Of Weak Response To Anti-Semitism On Campus", "2023-11-08", "2023", "2023-11", "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\u201cSince October 7, a nationwide reckoning with the ancient scourge of anti-Semitism has centered on America\u2019s most elite academic institutions. And the eye of this storm has been a cadre of the country\u2019s most radical leftist faculty.\n\n\u201cRecently, the University of California\u2019s Ethnic Studies Faculty Council released a letter condemning Israel as a \u2018globally acknowledged apartheid.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe council called the UC System\u2019s official response \u2013 which correctly identified the butchery committed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad \u2013 irresponsible.\n\n\u201cAnd it claimed for itself the mantle of \u2018moral authority.\u2019\n\n\u201cOf course, tenured Marxists do not have to worry much about real-world consequences.\n\n\u201cBut university administrators, recruiters, fundraisers, and students? They do.\n\n\u201cSo in response to this faculty group\u2019s terrorist propaganda, one member of the University of California Board of Regents published a strongly-worded letter of his own.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s what he said. \u2018Let me be crystal clear with no ifs, ands, or buts \u2013 I\u2026will do everything in my power to protect our Jewish students, and for that matter, everyone\u2026from your inflammatory and out of touch rhetoric.\u2019\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, too many other administrators have been unable or unwilling to speak with such moral clarity. And the consequences for their institutions are piling up.\n\n\u201cThe billionaire philanthropist who just a few years ago made the biggest donation in the history of Penn\u2019s Wharton School is now leading a revolt among influential donors that stretches across the Ivy League. He\u2019s pledged to close his checkbook, and by one account, he\u2019s talking to \u2018half of Wall Street\u2019 urging them to do likewise.\n\n\u201cOne prominent national law firm has gone as far as setting up a legal assistance hotline for students experiencing anti-Semitism on campus.\n\n\u201cApparently, the most successful alumni of the most elite schools in America want nothing to do with institutions that aid or abet anti-Semitism. Good on them!\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s not just private funding on the line. This week, the Secretary of Education called a play from his Republican predecessor\u2019s playbook and told major universities that he was willing to use Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to withhold federal funds if they permit anti-Semitic discrimination on their campuses.\n\n\u201cOf course, the Secretary couldn\u2019t help but couch his warning in \u2018both sides\u2019 rhetoric about Islamophobia, as has been the Biden Administration\u2019s practice this past month.\n\n\u201cWell, tomorrow, our colleagues on the HELP committee will convene a roundtable discussion addressing the topic at hand: a glaring rise in anti-Semitic hate on campus. I\u2019m very grateful to Ranking Member Cassidy for leading this effort to highlight the legal responsibilities universities have to protect Jewish students.\n\n\u201cAs our former colleague, the President of the University of Florida, put it without hesitation after October 7th, \u2018Our Constitution protects the rights of people to make abject idiots of themselves.\u2019\n\n\u201cFortunately, the Constitution also protects our right to condemn these people in the strongest possible terms.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "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=ECCB1D54-9A0C-435B-953D-2EC592DB87DF"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0573328472673893, "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"}