Hugh Hewitt says Harvard ought to lose money as well as one other thing it values

Radio host Hugh Hewitt said Monday evening on “Hannity” that Harvard University should lose not just its grants but also get stripped of its tax-exempt status.

Harvard University filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday evening in a Massachusetts federal court, claiming the administration is attempting to withhold federal funding as “leverage.” While discussing the new lawsuit, Fox’s Sean Hannity asked the radio host for his thoughts and if he believes taxpayers would be better off “supporting universities that stick to the basics.”

“I’m open to Harvard making a case for a unique division of labor into research that no one else is doing,” Hewitt said. “I’m not open, though, to the tax-exempt status for a university that is discriminating on the basis of race or ethnicity or country of origin. I don’t know what Harvard is trying to hide by virtue of the lawsuit that they filed today.”

“It seems to me to be the best defense is a good offense. Instead of sitting down and explaining to the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education or the Division of Civil Rights at the Department of Justice why what they have been doing is not, in fact, a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I think it is,” Hewitt added.

In April, the Department of Education sent a letter to the university requesting that the school comply with a list of reforms to address antisemitism on campus, including adjustments like enforcing disciplinary processes, improving international student screenings for “hostile” views, and reviewing “programs with egregious records of antisemitism.”

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Following Harvard’s refusal to comply, the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the freezing of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value for the university.

Hewitt went on to say how the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 to block affirmative action after a case was brought against both Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

“So right on top of discriminating against Asian Americans begins a pattern of antisemitic intimidation, outright violence. The sort of thing that gets a tax-exempt status pulled,” Hewitt said. “I’d add one more thing, Sean. The provost of Harvard, the number two guy, he was in the Reagan Department of Justice. We didn’t overlap, but we were both in the Reagan Department of Justice.”

“We all know what the Bob Jones University case stood for. It stood for the simple proposition, if you engage in racial discrimination or discrimination against protected groups, you lose your tax-exempt status,” Hewitt said. “So not only should they not get money if they’re doing this, they should lose their tax-exempt status.”

Harvard was also hit with another revocation of money on Monday evening. Senior Department of Health and Human Services officials told the Daily Caller that the administration will pause $1 billion from the National Institutes of Health to the school.

Officials said that the decision to pause was due to the neglect of addressing antisemitism on campus, adding that school officials need to “fully come into compliance with Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

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