The testimony of three elite university presidents at a House hearing on antisemitism has unleashed a firestorm of criticism from alumni, donors and lawmakers, demanding their removal. Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania has already resigned.

While the hearing raised valid questions about the boundary between free speech and incitement, grandstanding by Republican representatives was disingenuous given their own party’s track record on antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.

The most heated exchange took place between Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Harvard President Claudine Gay.

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” Stefanik asked. It was a trap, and Gay stepped into it.

Instead of forcefully condemning overt antisemitism, Gay explained the complexities of university disciplinary codes.

She failed to see that Republicans were more interested in scripting the hearings into a narrative that portrays colleges and universities as elite liberal institutions out of touch with the American people than in fighting antisemitism on campuses.

Other panelists piled on. "Here's your chance to tell America who's gotten fired, what organizations you'd kick off your campuses — does anybody want to jump in?" Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) asked the three women.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the panel chair, engaged in absurd hyperbole, declaring that "After the events of the past two months, it's clear that rabid antisemitism and the university are two ideas that cannot be cleaved from one another."

Not a single panelist raised the question of........

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