Former MSNBC host says Trump's move on Harvard was "smart": Live Updates
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Amanda M. Castro is a Newsweek Live Blog Editor based in New York. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, breaking news, consumer topics, and entertainment. She specializes in delivering in-depth news and live blog reporting and has experience covering U.S. presidential debates, awards shows, and more. Amanda joined Newsweek in 2024 from the The U.S. Sun and is a graduate of the University of New Haven.
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Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews surprised viewers Tuesday on Morning Joe by saying the Trump administration was "smart" to target elite universities like Harvard over their handling of antisemitism. The comments come after the administration froze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard, citing the school's refusal to comply with federal demands to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators.
What to Know:
- Matthews said elite schools are "taking a beating" and suggested the administration's actions won't hurt Trump politically.
- He criticized universities for reportedly failing to protect students, saying even non-Jewish students should be able to attend class without disruption.
- Vanity Fair's Molly Jong-Fast pushed back, calling the move "thought policing" and "authoritarian."
- "They are using antisemitism as a cloak. If this administration really cared about antisemitism, there's a lot of stuff they could do. This is not about that, this is about targeting universities, this is about targeting speech, this is right out of an authoritarian playbook," Fast said.
- Matthews responded by stressing that many Jewish students feel unsafe and that universities need to do more.
- Trump's freeze of multi-year contracts and grants comes amid rising tensions between the federal government and elite academic institutions.
Stay with Newsweek for the latest.