The Patriot Post® · Harvard Reverses After Bradley Backlash

Early this morning, Douglas Elmendorf, dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School, rescinded the visiting fellow invitation previously given to Bradley (a.k.a. “Chelsea”) Manning. Saying that it was a “mistake,” Elmendorf also stated, “We are withdrawing the invitation to her [sic] to serve as a Visiting Fellow — and the perceived honor that it implies to some people — while maintaining the invitation for her [sic] to spend a day at the Kennedy School and speak in the Forum.” He continued, “I apologize to her [sic] and to the many concerned people from whom I have heard today for not recognizing upfront the full implications of our original invitation. This decision now is not intended as a compromise between competing interest groups but as the correct way for the Kennedy School to emphasize its longstanding approach to visiting speakers while recognizing that the title of Visiting Fellow implies a certain recognition.”

Harvard’s reversal comes one day after former acting CIA Director Michael Morell resigned his non-resident senior fellow position at the Ivy League school in protest over the university’s announcement on Wednesday that it had invited Manning to be its “first transgender Fellow” this fall semester. Morell wrote, “Unfortunately, I cannot be part of an organization — that honors a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.” Morell wasn’t the only Harvard affiliate to offer protest, either. Current CIA Director Mike Pompeo declined an invitation to speak at the university, issuing the following statement:

> After much deliberation in the wake of Harvard’s announcement of American traitor Chelsea [sic] Manning as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics, my conscience and duty to the men and women at the Central Intelligence Agency will not permit me to betray their trust by appearing to support Harvard’s decision with my appearance at tonight’s event.

Clearly, Harvard’s initial decision to invite Manning was intended as a means of celebrating the school’s transgender “wokeness” — the hip new word for being socially conscious. Never mind the fact that Manning is a traitor whose actions endangered the lives of countless individuals and undermined the security of this nation. This is a classic example of an organization so committed to an ideology that it has become blind to truth and reality. Were Manning merely a straight man who’d betrayed his country, Harvard wouldn’t have given him the time of day. And this is an Ivy League school, supposedly home to some of America’s brightest minds. Harvard should be ashamed of itself for this egregious display of anti-American bigotry.