(Headline USA) Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said this week that he’d support his colleague, outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, taking over as Harvard University’s next president.
The position is currently being held by interim President Alan Garber, who took over after Claudine Gay was forced to step down following multiple allegations of plagiarism and her failure to adequate condemn antisemitism on campus.
However, a new Washington Post op-ed by Harvard alumnus Daniel Rosen suggested a better, more permanent replacement for Gay would be Romney, who is also a Harvard graduate.
Fetterman, also a Harvard alumnus, seconded the idea, arguing the school needs to be brought back to the center.
“This former Governor of Massachusetts doesn’t need a paycheck, but Harvard and its academic peers needs to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy,” Fetterman tweeted, citing the rise of anti-Semitism at Harvard and othe prominent schools, such as Columbia University.
As an alumnus of Harvard, and after this mad season of antisemitism at Columbia, I co-sign.
This former Governor of Massachusetts doesn't need a paycheck, but Harvard and its academic peers needs to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy. pic.twitter.com/eaT0F5VaiR
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 22, 2024
Rosen, who described himself as a “lifelong Democrat,” argued similarly.
“I make this suggestion in the sincere and robust hope that he is someone who can navigate the university through painful but necessary reform and drive back the antisemitism that is tarnishing the institution’s credibility,” Rosen wrote.
“As the grandson of Holocaust survivors and president of the American Jewish Congress, I find it devastating that Harvard has failed to vigorously address the unchecked antisemitism on campus,” he continued.
Rosen went on to praise Romney as a “profile in courage in the Senate,” arguing his “unique bridge-building character is precisely what Harvard needs in an age of toxic polarization.”
Fetterman has been vocally outspoken against the Democratic Party’s far-left flank in recent months, especially in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Last month, he made it clear that he is not “woke,” despite running as a progressive just a couple of years ago.
Romney, who has faced the disdain of many fellow Republicans after twice voting to impeach then-President Donald Trump—the only GOP senator to do so—opted to retire rather than run for a second term. However, the failed 2012 GOP presidential candidate has a distinguished track record in the executive sector as the former head of Bain Capital and overseeing the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.
Romney would be the second RINO in recent years to flee the Senate for a prestigious university position. Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse retired last year to become president of the University of Florida.
