DeSantis: Harvard, Penn, MIT Should Lose Federal Funds

On Thursday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” 2024 Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called for cutting off federal funds to schools that have failed to act on antisemitic assaults on their campuses like Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania and argued that failing to do so is “essentially subsidizing this kind of behavior.”

Host Hugh Hewitt asked, “Would you be in favor of cutting off — and notwithstanding any other law provision in the supplemental — cutting off funds to universities like Harvard, Penn, and MIT that have not taken action against the antisemitic assaults that have occurred on their campus?”

DeSantis responded, “100%. … [Y]es, it’s totally appropriate to do that. And if you’re not doing that, then you’re essentially subsidizing this kind of behavior. And it’s bad enough some of the stuff that you see with these university presidents. But then you talk — and, look, I’ve got a lot of friends down in Florida who have kids that are in college in different parts of the country. And these students are scared to even walk on campus now. Some of them are being chased around. This is totally unacceptable in the United States of America.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett