On Monday, things got heated between NewsNation host Chris Cuomo and Harvard history professor Allison Johnson as the two locked horns over their opposing views of Harvard university president Claudine Gay’s recent December testimony to Congress. The Harvard history professor was part of the recent faculty-wide support of Gay amid rising tensions to have her step down.
Cuomo expressed disapproval at Gay’s congressional question-answer session, saying, “These were not curveballs, okay? She was prepped on what to say and what not to say. And these were easy questions, okay?” He continued, “I can’t believe that she just, after the fact said, ‘Well, those answers sucked! I don’t know why I said that.’ She said what she wanted to say. She just doesn’t like how it went over. What am I getting wrong here?”
Johnson was quick to counter Cuomo, saying, “I think you’re getting everything wrong that you just said. In my personal opinion of course, I don’t know any better than you do what Claudine Gay thinks. I’m not a close friend of hers.” She then added that the questions in the context of Gay’s congressional hearing of five hours “actually were not that individual question, which should have been easy to answer. But that question in the context of other questions that preceded it confused — I can only assume it confused her.”
While the NewsNation host disagreed, claiming, “This is easy! ‘Should they be saying anything that is derisive about the Jews?’ ‘No! Not as a mass group. No, they shouldn’t.’ ‘But you didn’t do anything about it.’ ‘Well, I should have and we will. May I go home now?’ That was it,” Johnson had helped organize a petition signed by more than 700 Harvard professors that asked the university’s governing board to “resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom.”
Since the hearing, Gay released a public apology to the university students, acknowledging that “calls for violence” towards Jews are “not acceptable,” and expressing her regret for her testimony. Johnson explained her stance using the university’s commitment to academic freedom, asserting, “The independent university is a critical part of a healthy, vibrant democracy in which many different viewpoints can coexist.”
As the controversy continues to heat up, it will be interesting to see how the saga unfolds.