‘You Don’t Actually Believe That’: Dan Abrams Challenges Scott Jennings on Trump’s University Crackdown
Mediaite founder Dan Abrams challenged CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings on Monday after Jennings suggested President Donald Trump was going after Harvard University because “Jewish students had their civil rights violated.”
Reacting on CNN NewsNight to Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration for allegedly violating the university’s constitutional rights, Abrams said, “Look, it’s going to be a strong legal case, and I think Harvard had kind of no choice here. Why? Because look what happened to Columbia, right? They started negotiating, and they’re still getting their money held back. So Harvard’s position is probably like, ‘Well, you know what? We might as well go for it.'”
Abrams then argued that it was also a “political winner” for the Trump administration, predicting, “I think they will lose in court, but the government’s gonna pay for the defense and the administration can say, ‘We went after the Ivy League schools.'”
He questioned, “Who’s gonna be yelling and screaming in the streets about the idea that these incredibly wealthy Ivy League schools are being targeted? I mean, it doesn’t make it right, but from a political perspective I don’t think he’s got to lose here.”
After host Abby Phillip accused the Trump administration of wanting to “control all aspects” of the university, Jennings said, “I think it’s overly broad to say they want to control every aspect of how a university operates.”
“A lot of aspects,” replied Phillip.
Jennings continued, “I do believe – I agree with Dan – the fight is worth picking if only because they do have a terrific argument on the idea that these Jewish students had their civil rights violated! I mean, Mike can probably comment on it, but we have laws in this country that the administration believes were violated as it relates to the civil rights protections that should be afforded to everyone, including these Jewish students.”
Abrams then confronted Jennings, “You don’t actually believe that it’s just on the anti-Semitism. I mean, that’s the thing, come on.”
“I said the fight is worth picking because of that alone, but there are other reasons to pick on Harvard,” said Jennings. “Some are political.”
Abrams shot back, “Almost all are political. I mean, come on.”
“And some have to do with this,” concluded Jennings. “I think the average American probably looks at this and says they’re sitting on a $53 billion endowment, they want another two to nine billion dollars, and at the same time they keep turning out a bunch of professors and students who appear to be schooled in one thing only: the downfall of Western civilization. Why are we financing this?”
Watch above via CNN.
