Republicans scorched elite college presidents at a more than five-hour campus antisemitism hearing Tuesday — but Harvard University President Claudine Gay arguably got the worst of it.

Several lawmakers piled onto Gay, Harvard’s first Black woman leader, pressing her to outline her stance on Israel’s right to exist and whether student calls for “intifada” or “from the river to the sea” chants on campus violate the school’s code of conduct. She was also asked if she believes “calling for the mass murder of African Americans” is protected free speech, and if she has expelled or fired anyone on her campus in response to explosive demonstrations.

The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology also testified on Capitol Hill before the House Education committee, but Republicans largely set their sights on scrutinizing Harvard’s leader.

House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) slammed Harvard as “ground zero for antisemitism” following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a Harvard alum, once again called for Gay’s resignation after an adversarial line of questioning.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the committee, acknowledged that campuses have become polarized and have seen a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents.

“To be clear, this discrimination is nothing new,” Scott said in his opening remarks. “Any student of history knows that it did not start with the Oct. 7 attacks; or diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; or any one new event. My colleagues would do well to recall this country has a centuries-long history of racism and white supremacy.”

Gay denounced antisemitism, and even admitted the university has “not always gotten it right.” But she also took responsibility for confronting antisemitism on her campus.

MIT’s Sally Kornbluth was rarely the target in the most heated exchanges, and American University professor Pamela Nadell, the Democrats’ sole witness, faced few fiery questions from Republicans.

Here are five key moments from the hearing:

Stefanik goes after Gay

Stefanik, who arguably gave Gay the worst grilling at the hearing, stood firm on her previous call for Gay to resign from the job she has had for five months. Nearly half a dozen times, lawmakers deferred some of their time to the fourth-ranking House Republican, who proved to be the leader of Harvard’s toughest critics on the panel.

Stefanik compared students calling for “intifada” on campus with a “Harvard student calling for the mass murder of African Americans,” and demanded Gay answer “yes or no” to whether she agreed these sayings were protected speech at Harvard.

“You are president of Harvard, so I assume you're familiar with the term ‘Intifada,’ correct?” Stefanik asked Gay, to which she agreed. “Then you understand that the use of the term ‘intifada,’ in the context of the Israeli-Arab........

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