Chris Christie calls on Penn president Liz Magill to resign amid growing GOP frustration with universities

Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last week called for University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s firing, accusing the university leader of failing to combat antisemitism on campus amid tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.

“The president of Penn should be fired today without hesitation,” Christie said during a discussion at Hudson Institute, a D.C.-based research organization. “This is not about freedom of speech. This is about rank incompetence.”

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick followed Christie’s call this week when the Republican was asked in an interview whether Magill should be fired.

“Of course,” McCormick told the Delaware Valley Journal. “Anybody who showed in this moment of crisis that they couldn’t step up and be clear about good and bad, evil versus not evil, I think is not qualified to lead.”

The Magill criticism comes as Republican politicians across the country have similarly blasted university and college presidents, who they argue have not shown sufficient support for Israel or cracked down on what they see as harmful or antisemitic speech. Their criticism coincides with prominent donors halting funding to increase pressure on university leaders. And it suggests that the Israel-Hamas war — along with increasingly partisan views on higher education — will likely be major topics in the 2024 election.

Christie and McCormick aren’t alone in condemning university presidents. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) called on the president of her alma mater, Harvard University, to resign last week after the school’s president refused to punish students who signed onto a letter blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 massacre committed by Hamas.

Christie, who visited Israel earlier this month — the first presidential candidate to do so — also said the presidents of Harvard and Cornell Universities should be fired.

Broader Republican backlash has also boiled up in Congress. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R., Missouri) said last month that his committee is exploring whether it could revoke some universities’ tax-exempt statuses. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) called on the Department of Homeland Security to deport students in the United States on visas who have expressed support for Hamas and its attack, labeling them “foreign nationals.”

Democrats have been far less critical of university leadership handling of war-related tensions. The party is more divided on the war and has taken a mixed — and sometimes more nuanced — approach to the conflict. Nine House Democrats voted against a resolution earlier this month that condemned Hamas and supported Israel. Six voted “present.” Several, including Rep. Summer Lee (D., Pittsburgh), favor a cease-fire. Lee said the resolution’s failure to mention a two-state solution or peace with Palestinians led to her vote.

While a surge in college campus activism has put a spotlight on universities and their leaders, GOP trust in higher education was plummeting before the Israel-Hamas war, polls show.

Only 19% of Republicans said in a Gallup poll in July that they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, compared to 56% who said the same eight years ago. Democratic confidence also slid about 9 percentage points since 2015. The most common answer Republicans gave for their loss of confidence was that colleges were becoming “too liberal” or “too political.”

Several GOP presidential candidates including Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have declared war on “woke colleges.”

The war between Israel and Hamas has only further ignited those GOP complaints.

Penn has been at the epicenter of complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish harassments as both have spiked across the country, and particularly on college campuses.

The university has struggled to respond to myriad concerns after the Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent military siege of Gaza. Penn continues to receive backlash for its early response to the attack and the Palestine Writes literary festival held on campus in September. The festival was criticized by some for inviting speakers who had a history of making antisemitic remarks. Some major donors called on Penn to cancel the festival, which it did not. More than 4,000 people, describing themselves as alumni and supporters of Penn, sent an open letter to Magill challenging Penn’s handling of the festival, and several donors have since withheld funding.

“I’m glad to see some of the donors are now taking a stand and saying that unless you change your policies, we’re not giving you any more money,” Christie said last week about Penn’s situation. “But guess what? They have tens of billions already.”

Earlier this month, Magill announced the university’s antisemitism action plan, which includes establishing a task force and student advisory group, and hiring an expert to help the university prevent and respond to antisemitism as well as Islamophobia and other forms of hate.

Calls for new leadership have largely failed as Penn’s board continues to express confidence in Magill, who is in her second year as president. She delivered an impassioned pledge at the last board meeting to regain the trust of alumni.

Penn has experienced several antisemitic incidents this semester, including a swastika painted on the inside of an academic building and vandalism at Penn Hillel. Earlier this month, some Penn staff members received “vile, disturbing” emails threatening violence against the Jewish community. Penn police and the FBI are investigating, Magill had said.

Leaders at the school say backlash against faculty and students speaking in support of Palestinians is also a problem.

This week a petition signed by more than 500 academics and writers from inside and outside the United States called on Penn to defend its students, faculty, and staff against targeted harassment for speaking in support of Palestinians. The academics asked Magill to pledge to support the academic freedom and safety of Penn faculty who have been attacked on social media and within the university, and for Penn to “repudiate all libelous and defamatory attacks on its Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim students and faculty.”

It also calls on Penn to “show the same level of concern for them as it purports for Jewish students and faculty.”

Staff writer Sue Snyder contributed to this article.