Morning Wire - Harvard’s Claudine Gay Resigns & Dark Money Funnels | 1.3.24

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Harvard’s President Claudine Gay resigns, tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money is allegedly given to a left-wing anti-Israel group, and the Biden Administration seeks to regulate more household appliances. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Shopify: "Get a $1 per month trial at https://www.shopify.com/morningwire" Balance of Nature: Get 35% off your first order as a preferred customer + free Fiber and Spice supplements. Use promo code WIRE at checkout: https://www.balanceofnature.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned. She said that she was, quote, subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus. So no type of personal responsibility, no apology. What led to the high-profile resignation? And what's next for both gay and the embattled university? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, January 3rd, and this is Morning Wire. A new report alleges that tens of millions of dollars in tax

payer money has been funneled to a left-wing dark money group that backs anti-Israel activism. And the Biden administration unveils new household appliance regulations, which items are set to be banned. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Is your business selling a little or a lot? Shopify helps you do your thing, however, you chiching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. from the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout, which is 36% better on average compared to the other leading commerce platforms.

Get a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morning wire. That's Shopify.com slash morning wire. Facing six new allegations of plagiarism, Harvard's beleaguered president, Claudine Gay, resigned on Tuesday. Gay's tenure marks the shortest in the school's history. Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham, is here now with more. So, Megan, before Christmas, it looked like Harvard's board of directors was committed to supporting Gay, and Gay had made it clear that she planned to stay in fight for her position, but now she's out. Were these latest allegations just the last straw?

Well, you know, I'd say the latest allegations detailed in the Washington Free Beacon were at least among the most egregious. So they reported that in 2001, Gay copied nearly half a page of material. verbatim from a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin. But it was less likely about the specifics of these latest charges than the fact that the charges just kept coming. So just before Christmas, the school had to admit that in addition to the initial two dozen plagiarism allegations, the New York Post unearthed in late October, independent investigators that Harvard brought in also found new evidence of what it called duplicative language and gays work. So with the new charges, she was facing around 50 plagiarism allegations, and that represents about half of all of her published work.

And that was to say nothing about all of the widespread outcry over her seeming defense of calls for Jewish genocide. Of course, in her congressional testimony, she rather notoriously said that those statements might not violate Harvard's Code of Conduct. She said it would depend on context. And all of this was a huge turnoff to donors. and potential students seem to be pretty turned off as well. Early applications to the school are down nearly 20%. And even a lot of current students had began saying that it was time for her to go. This was Harvard University student Shabos Kestenbaum reacting to her resignation.

Let's stop with this political theater. Let's stop with this social activism. Let's stop with this focus on race and ethnicity and identity. Let's talk about intellectual diversity. And I hope that this day, January 2nd, moving onwards, can be a day where we can take into account the fact that, learning matters, education matters, and taking a stand against hate and anti-Semitism also matters. On New Year's Eve, some members of the editorial board of Harvard Student newspaper published a piece saying that

scandal after scandal has plagued the school since she assumed the presidency. And they said, quote, the leader of the world's foremost university must be held to a higher standard, one that gay has unfortunately failed to meet. Apparently, the board finally agreed. Now, is gay leaving voluntarily? Not really. She released a lengthy resignation letter in which she defended herself against those plagiarism charges. She said, and I'm quoting,

it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor to bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am. And then she seemed to imply that the calls for her to resign have been somewhat motivated by racism. She said that it's been frightening to be subjected to, personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus. She didn't, though, offer any specifics as to what she meant by threats. But you do have to say she does have her backers. So Boston University professor and DEI advocate Ibrmex-Kendi, for example, tweeted this about

gay's resignation. He said, racist mobs won't stop until they topple all black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism. So will this be the end of it? There's also been a lot of scrutiny on the board at this point based on how they've handled things. You know, that remains to be seen, but certainly plenty of people are laying the blame for this debacle at their feet. You've got a lot of critics who say that they created this firestorm by hiring gay too quickly. Their hiring search for president in 2022 was apparently the fastest in the school's history.

And a lot of people are pointing to DEI as the reason that they chose gay in the first place. This was what attorney and former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax last week. I think today under DEI, if you're black and you're an intellectual, you have a double standard applied to you. And we're seeing a double standard applied in plagiarism as well. Harvard ought to change its motto from Veritas truth to double standard. New York Congresswoman Elise Daphonic, who of course asked the question that gay was responding to when she gave that infamous depends on the context answer. Well, Stefanik says the House's investigation into Harvard and other elite schools is still going to go forward. And at a private dinner, one of Harvard's own board members reportedly told a group of professors that are part of a council on academic freedom that it will take more than Gay's resignation to get the school back on track.

Tracy Palanjin said generational change may be needed. Well, it sounds like the rot goes pretty deep. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. time. While tackling your New Year's goals, don't forget about your daily dose of fruits and vegetables, which just got easier to remember thanks to Balance of Nature. Their fruit and veggie capsules offer a convenient way to consume those essential nutritional ingredients daily. So, improve your diet and feel your best this year. Go to Balanceofnature.com and use promo code wire for 35% off,

plus a free fiber and spice in your first order as a preferred customer. That's balanceofnature.com promo code wired. A new investigation found that an influential dark money group backing anti-Israel activism across the U.S. has pocketed tens of millions in taxpayer-backed grants and contracts in recent years. Joining us to discuss his new report on taxpayer money being funneled to anti-Israel groups is Gabe Kaminsky investigative reporter at the Washington Examiner. Hey Gabe. Hey, Jay.

So you've broken a new story here on an influential liberal dark money group. First, what is this group? The Tide Center is one of the largest and most influential nonprofit groups in the U.S. The group fiscally sponsors significantly influential groups in the anti-Israel movement that are organizing and leading protests after the October 7 terrorist attacks led by Hamas against Israel. And what we found in the Washington Examiner is that a Tide Center has actually received over $81.2 million in federal grants. and contracts between 2006 and 2023. And so that's essentially linking taxpayer dollars to an agency behind those protests, right? And lawmakers argue that money is fungible and have concerns over that funding.

In your report, you discuss a concept called fiscal sponsorship that's related to this. This is how the money is funneled through the Tide Center and it allows some groups to operate without transparency. Can you explain that concept for us? Yeah, fiscal sponsorship's a complicated process, a complicated phrase of saying that charities in the U.S., they lend their tax-exempt status to basically unincorporated projects that receive things like human resources, health insurance, donation processing. And this allows these projects to not file their own financial disclosures or tax forms with the IRS. So it kind of has been argued to be this kind of opaque or dark money, whatever you want to. call it, lack of transparent funding system in which these projects, it's not entirely clear who's supporting them. And so various projects under the Tide Center include the AIDA Law Justice Project, Palestine Legal, and a catalyst project. They would like to appear to operate independently while they sort of shape the anti-Israel movement and whatnot. The Tide Center is the

group behind him. Can you expand a little bit more on those particular groups that received funding? what kinds of activities do they engage in? Yeah, so the first group I'll point you to would be Palestine Legal. Palestine Legal is a really important group for your listeners to be aware of. We've actually done a separate whole story on them. Palestine Legal is essentially the legal cog

of the anti-Israel movement. They actually legally represent and defend various sort of anti-Israel organizations across the U.S., namely students for justice in Palestine chapters, schools across the United States. Students for Justice in Palestine, essentially it's a student campus group. Your listeners might be aware that at George Washington University, the Students for Justice

in Palestine chapter after the October 7 terrorist attacks displayed an image on the GW library that was scrutinized as praising Hamas. Adelaah Justice Project is similarly an advocacy group for Palestinian-related issues in the U.S. They held protests. They lead fundraising campaigns to, in their mind, quote, end Israeli occupation, colonization, and violence. Another group that is justifying the October 7th, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, some of its staff members have celebrated such violence. Then Catalyst Project, it calls itself an anti-racism collective liberation group. So this is a group that, you know, frames itself as sort of a left-wing social justice equity group. that at the same time has been justifying those terrorist attacks on social media.

Well, Gabe, thank you so much for coming on to report this for us. That was the Washington examiners, Gabe Kaminsky. The Biden administration unveiled on Friday new environmental regulations that impact several key household appliances. The new rules are the latest in Biden's crackdown on home appliances that started with gas stoves. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Alorty, is here with the details. So, Marade, tell us about these new. regulations. Hi, Georgia. Sure. So on Friday, the Energy Department announced two new energy efficiency rules affecting refrigerators, freezers, and commercial fans. The rules would ban lower efficiency

models, which also tend to be at lowering cost. The Biden administration says the new rules will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 420 million metric tons over 30 years, or the equivalent of the emissions of 53 million homes. It also claims that the rules will save American households and businesses about $5 billion per year on their utility bills, although those estimates have been disputed. The new rules are based on regulations that are already in place in California and would take effect in 2029 or 2030.

Now, these are just the most recent appliance regulations to come from the Biden administration. Which other appliances have been regulated at this point? Right. The Biden administration has cracked down on a long list of home appliances, things like gas stoves, dishwashers, air conditioners, refrigerators, light bulbs, washing machines, microwaves and furnaces. The gas furnace regulations will take effect in 2008, but the American

Gas Association has already filed a legal challenge against the rules so it's possible they won't hold up in court. The most controversial was the gas stove ban. A lot of Americans have a strong preference for gas stoves and restaurants claim they're essential for doing business because they heat up immediately and give shifts good control over the heat source. In general, Americans don't want fully electric homes, which would mean giving up things like gas stoves, gas heat, and gas fireplaces. Critics have also undermined the claims that they will save energy and costs. As of November, only a third of Americans wanted an all-electric home, according to a Yale poll. Now, is there a realistic chance that states will go fully gas-free? Well, we're ways away from

seeing whole states ban gas, but if you live in California, there's a good chance you live in a city that either had passed a ban or is considering one. In 2019, Berkeley, California became the first city to ban gas hookups in new construction homes. Since then, at least 50 other California cities and counties have either enacted or considered a similar ban. A few other cities nationwide have floated this idea as well. On the other hand, at least 25 states have passed laws that protect people's access to natural gas and a dozen more states are considering doing so. Now, that said this is clearly a priority for the Biden administration. Should we expect more regulations? Yes. So Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Friday that they plan to continue to, quote, move quickly in 2024 to update and

strengthen outdated energy efficiency standards. So we should expect the crackdown on home appliances to continue, but 2024 is also an election year and some of these bands are unpopular. So it's possible they won't push as hard as they did in 2023. The energy department says it's issued 30 energy efficiency standards, some proposed and some final over the course of 2023. Well, we'll have to see if this is a winning issue in the election. Marade, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.