Moral 'failures' of academic leaders wouldn't have seen accountability if not for Congress: Stefanik

 Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., reacts to Harvard's president stepping down on 'America Reports.'

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., responded Tuesday to Harvard President Claudine Gay's resignation, telling Fox News the "failure of leadership" by Gay and now-former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill would not have been met with accountability if not for Congress.

Stefanik's stern questioning last month of Magill, Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on the subject of virulent antisemitism on campus has been credited for leading to the resignations of Magill and Gay, who stepped down Tuesday.

Stefanik told "America Reports" all three women offered "morally bankrupt" testimony in response to what she called an extremely simple question – whether calling for Jewish genocide violates academic codes of conduct at each institution. 

Each collegiate leader offered a different version of "it depends on the context," Stefanik recounted, saying that as a Harvard graduate herself, she recognized Gay's failure of leadership from the start.

HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY RESIGNS

"We have seen… from Claudine Gay a failure of moral leadership, but also a failure of academic integrity, which is a cornerstone of any higher education institution," she said. "So I called for her resignation as I did for all three [presidents] because of their abject failure in that congressional testimony and their failure to protect Jewish students."

"This is long overdue. It should not have taken the Harvard Corporation Board this long to demand her resignation."

She said members of Harvard's corporation are also "complicit" in covering up Gay's reported repeated plagiarism;