On Tuesday, the Washington Post published a guest essay urging Harvard University to name Mitt Romney as president.
Daniel Rosen — a Harvard alumnus and American Jewish Congress’s current president — wrote, “Harvard University remains in an almighty mess after months of turmoil over hate speech. There is a way to fix this: appoint former Massachusetts governor and retiring U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) university president.”
After publication, Romney earned an unlikely booster: Democrat Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
“As an alumnus of Harvard, and after this mad season of antisemitism at Columbia, I co-sign,” Fetterman tweeted Monday, adding a screenshot of the Post article.
“This former Governor of Massachusetts doesn’t need a paycheck, but Harvard and its academic peers needs to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy.”
All year, Fetterman has been criticizing Harvard students’ hard line on Israel, and he’s distanced himself from the most antisemitic reaches of the far-bizarro Left.
“As an alum of Harvard — look, I graduated 25 years ago, and of course it was always a little pinko,” Fetterman told Semafor in January. “But now, I don’t recognize it.”
Harvard has attracted scrutiny ever since December’s disastrous testimony by the university’s former President Claudine Gay. In front of Congress, Gay waffled when asked about extending Harvard’s speech codes to cover any calls for genocide against Jews. Gay has since resigned amid a scandal over serial plagiarism.
“As we saw with the disastrous congressional testimony of then-President Claudine Gay, leadership matters. The university president must be the flag-bearer of our values. There is no doubt that there are other Americans of similar standing and stature, but Romney’s unique bridge-building character is precisely what Harvard needs in an age of toxic polarization,” Rosen said in the pages of the Post.
“What matters more than political leanings is that Romney has the moral courage and independence to identify the root sources of antisemitism at the university, address the decline in Jewish student applications and enrollment, and teach a new generation of young adults the importance of mutual tolerance and civilized coexistence.”
Rosen maintains that he “did not vote Romney when he ran for president in 2008.” Of course, Rosen neglected to say anything about 2012.
Romney, 77, is retiring from the Senate after this year.
Take a look at Fetterman’s remarks —
As an alumnus of Harvard, and after this mad season of antisemitism at Columbia, I co-sign.
This former Governor of Massachusetts doesn't need a paycheck, but Harvard and its academic peers needs to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy. pic.twitter.com/eaT0F5VaiR
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 22, 2024
The Horn editorial team