On Tuesday night, the Washington Reporter hosted Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) for a discussion of Stefanik’s new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities, which has received rave reviews from parents to President Donald Trump.
Stefanik’s focus on the troubled Ivy League institutions went viral in 2023, when she demanded answers from university presidents as to how their elite institutions had become hotbeds of anti-Semitism. Both Cotton and Stefanik are Harvard University alumni who served in the House together.
During the event, Cotton asked Stefanik what she learned from both her internationally-renowned hearings and from writing her book. She told Cotton that she “expected the university presidents to waffle and not answer directly, because they failed to lead at these institutions.”
“What I did not expect though,” was the moment that went viral, she said. “I thought I was asking them the easiest question of the hearing, to force them to answer ‘yes,’ and that question was this: ‘does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct?’”
“I expected them to say yes,” Stefanik added, “and I was going to follow up by asking, ‘What disciplinary action has been taken?’ To my shock, they said ‘it depends on the context,’ and the world heard… I knew they were going to be bad. I did not realize they were going to be so morally bankrupt.”
Stefanik’s basic questioning set off an “unprecedented congressional investigation,” and led to firings and resignations at schools like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. While those events took place years ago, Stefanik said they remain as relevant as ever, citing recent investigations by the Department of Justice (DOJ) into Harvard and a report from Yale University that examined the school’s free speech failures.
“It was an honor to host Congresswoman Stefanik, Senator Cotton, and other members of Congress and the administration to celebrate the launch of Poisoned Ivies,” Brian Colas, the Washington Reporter’s CEO, said. “The Washington Reporter will be hosting more premiere events in the coming weeks and we are grateful to everyone who could make it.”
While Stefanik’s book focuses heavily on the failures of America’s institutions, it also praises several schools that get it right, including Vanderbilt University, the University of Florida, and even one non-poisoned Ivy League school — Dartmouth, whose Sian Leah Beilock took some of the lessons that she learned from over a decade at the University of Chicago to the Northeast.
Attendees told the Reporter that the event was among the highlights of a busy, White House Correspondents Dinner-filled week. “President Donald Trump himself said that there’s no one ‘more qualified’ than Stefanik to speak on the rot inside of elite institutions across the country,” Marisela Ramirez told the Reporter after the event.
“Being able to hear her account of what led up to the book and the comprehensive administrative work done to get universities to reckon with their moral decline is a reflection of real progress for the future of American education,” Ramirez added.
Among those in attendance were Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R., Iowa) and Jodey Arrington (R., Texas), as well as Harmeet Dhillon, Melanie Meyers, Victoria Vincent, Yannick Tona, Nick Ballas, Seth Taube, Caroline Wren, James Arnold, Doug Blair, Mat Guttman, Alex DeGrasse, Charles Baldis, Garrett Ventry, Katie Rodriguez, Ashley Oliver, Patrick McCann, Gage Raley, Cara Mason, Brett O’Donnell, Geoff Holtzman, John Ryan Rodriguez, Weston Loyd, Jacob Bliss, Boris Zilberman, Mark Fraenkel, Jim Bognet, Ben Jacobs, and Patrick Hester.
Following Cotton’s questioning, Stefanik signed approximately 100 books for those in attendance.
