UPenn president’s decision to withdraw remarks was ‘the right thing to do,’ White House says



Magill’s resignation over the weekend came just days after a House Education committee hearing last week. She and Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth have faced intense blowback and calls for their resignations after a clip of their responses to questioning from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) went viral shortly after the hearing.

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?” Stefanik asked Magill on Tuesday, to which Magill responded: “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment.”

Stefanik slammed the response, saying: “Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide? The speech is not harassment? This is unacceptable.”

The other presidents responded similarly to the question, saying that while they personally did not agree with the rhetoric used, they were committed to preserving free speech on campus.

Gay walked back her testimony in a statement the day after after the hearing, and has since apologized for her remarks. “When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” she said in an interview Friday with The Harvard Crimson.

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