On CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish devoted a segment to the showdown between Harvard and the Trump administration. Harvard has rejected the administration's call for it to abandon DEI, among other requirements. In return, the administration has frozen about $2 billion in federal funding to the university.
Noting a statement by the Harvard president, and playing a clip from a Democrat politician, Cornish promoted the notion that this is a fight over Harvard's "independence" and its right of "free expression." It's not.
Harvard is free to rename itself Hamas U. Offer a major in "From The River To The Sea Studies." Ditch "The Crimson," and call its teams "The Fightin' Kidnappers." All Harvard would have to do is make like Hillsdale College, and reject any federal or state funding.
But Harvard wants to have it both ways: keep the federal funds flowing, while rejecting the obligations that go with it. It reminds me of when, as an 11-year-old, I demanded that my parents continue to pay my weekly allowance, despite rejecting their requirement that I make my bed and mow the lawn. Didn't work out that well.
CNN chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly injected a note of realism, acknowledging the Trump administration's authority to do what it's doing:
"It turns out, because of government funding, because of government authority, that the president and the administration, the executive branch, can do an awful lot in an awful lot of spaces."
But Cornish immediately turned that into a negative: "Right. Create a lot of choke points here."
Choke points: yikes! Look for the Harvard president to take the hint from Audie and start complaining, "I can't breathe!"
Cornish also played a clip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), made yesterday when he conveniently happened to be part of a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on "Moral Leadership In Polarized Times," at which he said: "If Harvard had capitulated, I really fear for what next year would be."
Enthused Cornish: "He really lays out the stakes. And it feels like this is a moment where people are deciding, like, if you give an inch, they'll take a mile." Resist, Audie!
Note: When Kevin Fry, Spectrum's DC correspondent, said that the Trump administration has floated the possibility of judicial oversight of Columbia's compliance on diversity in coursework, Cornish interjected a silly non sequitur: "Which is ironic, since they're kind of dismantling the Ed Department."
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
4/15/25
6:01 am EDTAUDIE CORNISH: Since retaking the Oval Office, Donald Trump has been successful at bending U.S. institutions to his will. Whether that's government agencies, tech companies, law firms, one way or another they've been forced to decide whether or not they want to comply with the president's demands.
Now the Trump administration is taking the fight to America's oldest university.
. . .
HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: It's a transparent effort to change what is taught, what we say in our classrooms, what we teach our students. To make sure that the only things that are actually said on university campuses are things that the Trump administration wants to hear and wants to be said.
CORNISH: On Monday, the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion of Harvard's federal funding, that decision made after the university rejected a list of demands that the White House sent it last week. Among those demands, an end to so-called DEI practices. They also want an external audit looking for, quote, viewpoint diversity in everywhere from coursework to the student body itself, and new discipline policies, including retroactive punishments, including for protests that happened two years ago, and a comprehensive mask ban.
The Trump administration even specified that people who wear masks should be punished with no less than suspension.
So in a statement, Harvard's president described Trump's desired changes as a violation of the university's constitutional rights.
. . .
KEVIN FREY: There's now conversations about whether or not there should be some sort of judicial oversight of whether or not they [Columbia University] are in compliance.
CORNISH: Right. I don't want to just skip by some of the things you said. Oversight into actual curriculum. So we want to tell you, or at least be able to look at what you're teaching. Which is ironic, since they're kind of dismantling the Ed Department. But they want to do this in higher ed.
Democrats and their allies coming to universities' defense. Here's a sense of what they've been saying.
BERNIE SANDERS: He is putting pressure on universities as well. Good news is, Harvard University today said, go to hell!
JAMES CLYBURN: That may break the fever. I really hope it does. I do know this. If Harvard had capitulated, I really fear for what next year would be.
RO KHANNA: There are things that matter more than simply the size of one's endowment. We need the presidents to be banding together and standing up for free expression.
CORNISH: Gabby, I probably could have stopped with Clyburn, because he really lays out the stakes. And it feels like this is a moment where people are deciding, like, if you give an inch, they'll take a mile.
So if the concern is anti-Semitism, but you let that go into, also you need to wear a mask, also we want to go into curriculum, also, like, the list just gets longer.
. . .
PHIL MATTINGLY: The thing I would just emphasize here is, this wasn't an ad hoc thing that they just decided to launch.
Stephen Miller, who has a lot of stuff on his plate as a deputy chief of staff for policy. Russ Vought is controlling the budget operation. These guys have been working in groups under the same umbrella over the course of several years, planning all of this out.
And recognizing that it turns out, because of government funding, because of government authority, that the president and the administration, the executive branch, can do an awful lot in an awful lot of spaces if they just are willing to do it. And they are.
CORNISH: Right. Create a lot of choke points here.
