Jamie Raskin Accuses Trump Administration Of Orchestrating A ‘Government Takeover’ Of U.S. Higher Education

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) spoke about the Trump Administration’s actions within the higher education sector.

Transcript

00:00The ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Raskin, for his opening statement.

00:04Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to our witnesses for joining us today.

00:08Republicans convened us in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago to pass their billionaire tax break bill,

00:13which even Elon Musk, their great hero, now calls a disgusting abomination.

00:20Another class war tax scam that will not only throw 14 million Americans off of their Medicaid,

00:25but increase the national debt by $3 trillion.

00:30In case our friends missed it, Elon Musk, who you've been praising since this administration began,

00:36has a message for you today. Shame on you. Shame on those who voted for it.

00:40You know you did wrong, says Elon Musk.

00:44So I was pleasantly surprised to see we were going to have a hearing on antitrust,

00:48because there used to be Republicans like progressive trust buster Teddy Roosevelt,

00:52who actually believed in protecting the American people against price-fixing conspiracies,

00:57monopoly, and runaway corporate power.

01:00I thought perhaps, Mr. Chairman, we could get together to protect our personal data,

01:04to investigate alleged monopolization of live events, tickets,

01:09and lower prices on everything from eggs and other groceries to credit card junk fees,

01:15which have been soaring under the Trump administration,

01:18despite his promise that he would lower the price of eggs and everything else on day one.

01:23Silly me. Like everything else, antitrust in the hands of our friends

01:27is just one more chance to attack America's colleges and universities

01:31that refuse to surrender control to that luminary academic scholar, Donald Trump,

01:37who wants the federal government to take over faculty hiring,

01:41student admissions, and academic affairs at every university in America.

01:46And I don't even know why Donald Trump's so mad at Harvard.

01:49They let in his son-in-law, Jared Kushner,

01:51after the Kushner family donated $500,000 to get him in,

01:56just like Trump pardoned Kushner's father, Charles,

01:59a major Trump donor who's our new ambassador to France

02:02for his multiple convictions for tax evasion and witness tampering.

02:07Now, that would be a worthwhile hearing, Mr. Chairman,

02:09how wealthy people like the Kushners and the Trumps

02:12buy their way in to America's elite institutions, as Donald Trump calls them.

02:17But antitrust is now just a weapon of political attack, not economic analysis.

02:23When businesses advocate sustainable investing,

02:26House Republicans accuse them of violating antitrust.

02:30When consumers want to exercise their right to boycott,

02:32Republicans accuse them of violating antitrust.

02:35Gee, if you don't support their monstrous, ugly tax break bill for billionaires,

02:40they'll accuse you of violating antitrust.

02:42We'll probably be having a hearing on how Elon Musk is now violating antitrust

02:46since he's turned against Donald Trump and their appalling bill.

02:50So today, they're accusing eight universities,

02:53who represent less than one-half of one percent of undergraduate students

02:58in the entire market across America,

03:00of engaging in some completely vague and massive antitrust conspiracy.

03:06Republicans actually trotted out this pathetically weak theory

03:09in the first Trump administration.

03:11And of course, no antitrust scholars took it seriously.

03:14And even their own Department of Justice didn't do anything with it.

03:19They control the antitrust division again.

03:21Why do they need another hearing in this committee?

03:24Why don't they just bring their case, if there's a case?

03:27They've got the power.

03:28That's what they've been talking about.

03:29Look, this is pure power politics.

03:32President Trump's attacks on higher education reflect a standard move by authoritarians

03:38like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Viktor Orban in Hungary.

03:41This is right out of the dictator's playbook.

03:44Subdue and control any institution that could provide a check on your lying

03:48and your corruption.

03:50Prevent any possibility of opposition and dissent

03:53from forming against the autocrat in his regime.

03:56Clear a path for the agents of propaganda and disinformation

04:00and destroy the institutions that have given us great advances in scientific discovery

04:07and intellectual inquiry, as Mr. Nadler points out.

04:10J.D. Vance gave the whole game away, by the way,

04:12when he repeatedly quoted Richard Nixon to say,

04:15the professors are the enemy.

04:17Nixon said, the professors are the enemy.

04:19Write that on the blackboard a hundred times and never forget it.

04:22Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon ominously warned,

04:26if schools want to continue to do research,

04:29they must fall in line with the administration and its goals.

04:32They must be, quote, in sync with the administration

04:35and what the administration is trying to accomplish.

04:38That's a federal government takeover

04:41of every private and public university and college in America.

04:45Now, Harvard has stood up to the administration's attempted hostile takeover,

04:50rejecting its blatantly unconstitutional demands

04:53to control its governance, its curriculum,

04:56and the ideology of its faculty and students.

04:59In response, the administration has come after

05:01the university's research contracts and grants,

05:04and more recently, even its ability to enroll foreign students,

05:08only to be shut down by the courts

05:11and not left-wing, rogue Democrat judges,

05:15but Republican judges, too,

05:16for violating the university's First Amendment rights.

05:20We've got academic freedom in America under the First Amendment.

05:24And now the Trump administration ridiculously threatens

05:26to come after the university's tax-exempt status.

05:30They want to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status,

05:33and they've asked all federal agencies

05:35to cancel all of the contracts they have with Harvard

05:39to get the work of the American people done,

05:42the contracted work.

05:43But Trump is losing in court every day,

05:46and Harvard is winning as it stands up for academic freedom

05:49and its right to make scientific and academic progress.

05:53And hundreds of colleges and universities across the country

05:56are standing with Harvard.

05:58DHS head Christy Noem has said

05:59that its actions against Harvard

06:01should serve as a warning to all universities

06:03and all academic institutions.

06:05After Trump canceled more than $1.5 billion in research grants,

06:10we know that state universities

06:12and community colleges have been hit hard.

06:16At smaller schools,

06:17researchers are going to lose their jobs,

06:19labs will close,

06:20and important work will go undone.

06:23Our Republican colleagues

06:24have no interest in making higher ed

06:26more accessible and more affordable.

06:28In their big, beautiful bill,

06:30they're cutting programs

06:31that help students pay for college,

06:33all to fund their tax cuts

06:35for the wealthiest Americans.

06:37Those cuts to higher education in America

06:40include severe limits on Pell eligibility,

06:43the end to subsidized loans,

06:45and a host of other destructive changes

06:47that will push college way out of reach

06:49for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

06:52The administration also proposed

06:53nearly an 80% reduction

06:55in federal work-study funding

06:57and eliminating support for child care

06:59for students who are parents.

07:01What world are these people living in?

07:04This is breathtaking duplicity

07:06to claim that the Ivy League schools

07:08are conspiring against their students

07:10to make tuition unaffordable

07:11when House Republicans are complicit

07:14in the largest setback

07:15in access to higher education

07:18for working-class Americans in decades.

07:21Not content to undermine American students

07:23through these direct cuts to education,

07:25they're also proposing

07:26cutting $880 billion from Medicaid

07:30and $300 billion from SNAP,

07:32the nation's primary anti-hunger program.

07:35Do you know what happens

07:36to millions of low-income students

07:37who don't have health care

07:39and don't have enough food to eat?

07:41Most of them are going to drop out of school.

07:43Today's hearing just regurgitates

07:46the mega-agenda.

07:47Persecute and punish anyone

07:49who refuses to submit

07:50to Donald Trump's right-wing ideological agenda

07:53or gets in the way of their plan

07:55to fund tax cuts

07:56for the wealthiest Americans

07:58on the backs of everybody else.

07:59It is a cruel, dangerous program

08:02and it's got nothing to do with antitrust law.

08:05I yield back.

08:06The gentleman kneels back.

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