Copyright dailymail
On the latest episode of 60 Minutes, a veteran Harvard professor told the reporter that there's a 'grain of truth' in President Trump's assertion that the college is a 'liberal mess.' CBS's Bill Whitaker asked Ivy League professor Steven Pinker if there was any truth to the president's scathing assessment of the higher education institution. To the journalist's bemusement, Pinker agreed that Harvard has become somewhat of a progressive breeding ground in recent years. Whitaker said in the interview: 'President Trump has described Harvard as a liberal mess, that it has been hiring almost all woke, radical left idiots and birdbrains.' 'The language is a bit harsh, but does he have a point here?' the interviewer asked. Pinker responded: 'Not there, no. I think there's a grain of truth in that.' Before the professor could continue, a seemingly taken aback Whitaker asked: 'What's the grain of truth?' Pinker said: 'I think there should be more voices on the right at Harvard. I don't want Donald Trump to decide who those people are gonna be, or how many we should have.' The interview came after the Trump administration withheld billions of dollars in federal grants from Ivy League universities over concerns of antisemitism on their campuses and a push to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Earlier this year, Trump cut nearly $3billion - the largest freeze of its kind - in federal grants to Harvard due to its failure to comply with the recommendations of a federal antisemitism task force. The university pushed back with lawsuits, and in early September, a federal district court judge blocked the funding freeze, arguing that it was an 'ideologically motivated assault.' The Trump administration has vowed to appeal the decision. During his 60 Minutes appearance, the professor said: 'Harvard has not done enough to ensure a wide range of opinions being represented on campus... I think there have been too many incidents in which someone has expressed a controversial opinion and has been shamed or cancelled.' Pinker specifically pointed to the case of biology lecturer Carole Hooven, who resigned from Harvard in 2021 after she felt ostracized on campus due to comments she made on Fox News that were perceived as controversial by colleagues and students. This is what she said: 'The ideology seems to be that biology really isn't as important as how somebody feels about themselves or feels their sex to be. 'The facts are that there are, in fact, two sexes - there are male and female - and those sexes are designated by the kind of gametes we produce.' Other Ivy League universities that were also in the president's crosshairs quickly capitulated to the administration in order to restore funding. Columbia University, where major pro-Palestine demonstrations that engulfed college campuses across the country in 2023 began, was threatened with a $400million federal grant freeze. In response, Columbia agreed to administration demands of overhauling its student disciplinary process, applying a federally backed definition of antisemitism to teaching and creating a disciplinary committee investigating students critical of Israel. The university also agreed to pay a $200million fine to restore federal funding. Brown University made concessions to adopt the government's definition of 'male' and 'female' and remove any consideration of race from the admissions process. The University of Pennsylvania modified school records set by a transgender swimmer and said it would apologize to female athletes who were 'disadvantaged.' Cornell, Northwestern University, Duke and Princeton have all had federal funding withheld as well. Pinker is a cognitive psychologist who has been a professor at Harvard for 22 years, and he has long been outspoken about the liberal bias he believes exists on campus. The Daily Mail has reached out to Harvard University for comment.
