Chris Matthews says Trump ‘Smart’ to target Harvard and elite universities on anti -Semitism: ‘He knows what you are doing’

Former MSNBC leader Chris Matthews suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration was “smart” to target Harvard, and elite universities in general, on anti -Semitism.

“I have to say that the administration sometimes sets its objectives in the right direction. The elite universities in this country are not exactly covered with roses now in the way they dealt with these demonstrations,” Matthews said during MSNBC’s Morning Joe, referring to anti-Israel protests on campuses across October 7, 2023.

The Trump administration announced it would raise $ 2.2 billion in grants and perennial contracts on Monday after Harvard University President Alan M. Garber announced the same day that the school would not respect the Trump administration’s demands to combat anti -Semitism.

“I think everyone, whether you are a Jewish student or not, I think you want to have the right to go to a class when you pay $ 90,000 a year in school, you have the right to go to class and get used to your professors and enjoy the rights of a better university, a good university,” Matthews continued.

“And the fact that they had to be told to do this, they had to tell students to go to school, this is what they have to do, that they had to say that they had a problem in their heads. So I think elite universities are taking a beat now. This is probably a smart act,” he added. “

Matthews also argued that he would not harm the president politically.

“Trump Trump that goes after the elites. He knows what he is doing, politically, won’t hurt him. I think these universities have enough money to cover their heritage. They have received a lot of money to handle it. So they will be able to take care of themselves. he. “

Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast pushed again and compared Trump’s movement with “Police opinion 101.”

“They are using anti -Semitism as a cloak. If this administration really cared about anti -Semitism, there are many things they could do. This has nothing to do with this, it has to do with the goal of universities, this has to do with targeted speaking, this is right from an authoritarian book,” Fast said.

Jong-Fast continued to argue that it was the government overload “with the highest order” and had nothing to do with anti-Semitism.

Matthews replied, saying, “I think there is a real challenge. I asked my friends who are Jews. I said, are you worried? And they say yes. And that’s a problem. And treating those students, and in Colombia, it’s a serious problem. You don’t stop a child going to paid school.

Jong-Fast said she was Jewish and agreed that she has a major anti-Semitism problem in America. However, she added, “I also think that learning and the Harvard University Academy is not the answer.”