The viral moment in history’s most-watched congressional hearing wasn’t planned as a trick question, according to the woman who asked it. In an interview with the “Ruthless Podcast” released on Thursday morning, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., explained her preparation strategy for the confrontation with three college presidents in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
“The question that went viral was not even my prepared question,” Stefanik said in the interview. “My initial intent was I was going to follow up, expecting them to say yes to what disciplinary action, but I couldn’t even get to that point. It encapsulated so much of the disconnect that the American people feel writ large about how higher education has lost its way.”
The new insights into the hearing emerged in a conversation on “Ruthless,” focused on the upstate New York congresswoman’s New York Times bestselling book, “Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.”
Stefanik, who was the youngest woman elected to Congress until Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 election, gave a behind-the-scenes look at how her questioning has changed in her time as a legislator.
“So I’ve learned over time, there’s like the traditional legislative ease that’s given to members, where you have a paragraph-long statement and then ask questions,” the congresswoman first elected to the House in 2014 said. “That’s not the most impactful way. The questions, and I really honed this during the [2020] impeachment hearings, ask simple, straightforward questions that are oftentimes the most revealing.”
The 2023 hearing, which featured the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, centered on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
In the hearing, Stefanik went down the line of presidents and asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated each school’s code of conduct.
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When Harvard’s Gay was asked, she infamously responded, “It depends on the context.”
“One of the things that really caught my attention at that time, that iconic moment, was that your questions were very straightforward,” podcast co-host John Ashbrook noted. “It wasn’t like you asked a trick question.”
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That seemingly basic question would upend higher education. In the weeks following Stefanik’s questioning, both Harvard President Claudine Gay and UPenn President Elizabeth Magill resigned; Gay also was under the cloud of a plagiarism scandal.
Stefanik, a Harvard alum, describes the opposing directions of elite schools like Harvard, Columbia University and UPenn, and institutions like the University of Florida, Vanderbilt and Bari Weiss’ the University of Austin (UTX).
“Not only do you have to hold those schools to account, but you need to support through the marketplace these schools that are doing it differently,” Stefanik said. “That’s why I think you see the success at the Vanderbilts of the world, and the University of Florida, at UTX, which is the University of Austin, founded in 2021.”
Stefanik served as the chair of the House Republican Conference. After being nominated to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Stefanik returned to the House and considered a run for governor of New York.
Josh Holmes, one of the podcast co-hosts, called her one of the smartest people in politics. She is not seeking re-election this cycle but is excited for the next generation of members and their innovative approach to congressional hearings.
“You need to have churn, though,” Stefanik told Holmes. “This is why I think voluntarily choosing to take on another chapter – first of all, it’s what the founders envisioned. It’s something that I strongly support, but we need to see more of that so new voices come to the table. You look at [Rep.] Brandon Gill and some of these new up-and-comers are our bright stars coming up the ranks. There’s a ton of talent.”
