Harvard bipartisan panel features only Democrats and left-wing speakers

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Billed as a discussion at Harvard University on bridging the two-party divide, the panel featured only members of the political left, including two Democrats who had previously held elected office and the head of a high-profile group known to support left-wing causes.

Participants in the Oct. 9 panel titled “Across Differences: Organizing to Build Bridges in Partisan Times” included former Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy; former Democratic New Orleans Mayor and Louisiana Governor Mitch Landrieu; and NAACP President Derrick Johnson. The event was moderated by former NBC Boston correspondent Alison King.

“I was a little changed when I heard the first question about political division, because we no longer have political division, we have a national crisis in our democracy,” Johnson said in his opening remarks.

He then touched on Democrats’ talking points regarding shutting down the current government.

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“And now as we look at the government shutdown, let me share my opinion,” he said. “It boils down to two basic things. How can they further cut or gut the Affordable Care Act and/or distract from the Epstein files. So I don’t think it’s a political divide anymore, I think it’s a national crisis of our democracy.”

Landrieu, who served as co-chairman of Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign and co-chairman of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, began by boasting about “tearing down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans.”

Landrieu also served as a senior adviser in the Biden administration on coordinating implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

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NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson speaks during day one of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on August 19, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

She said her organization, E Pluribus Unum, focuses on reaching across the political aisle to teach people about diversity and how to talk about race.

He then turned to defending the DEI and, without warning, attacked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

“Like, Pete Hegseth is not qualified. You understand me on this? He’s a DEI person,” he said, drawing applause from the audience before moving on to more left-wing topics.

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“I think diversity is the nation’s greatest strength. It’s our superpower,” Landrieu said. “The word indivisibility means that we are so tightly bound together that when we do it that way, no one can defeat us. And when we come out of many and become one, when we do that, no one has ever been able to defeat the United States of America.”

Co-Chairman and Committee Co-Chairman Mitch Landrieu appears on stage during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on August 20, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Kennedy founded an organization called The Groundwork Project, which he said had a “great partner” in the NAACP “from the beginning.”

“In the fight to defend American democracy, frontline community organizers are our most effective asset,” the organization says on its website. The report claims that “anti-democratic” forces in the Deep South, Appalachia, and the Plains have organized “largely unchallenged for generations.”

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“Today, these investments are paying off as anti-democratic forces use the formidable civic power they have amassed in these places to threaten bodily autonomy, public education, voting rights, climate action, and democratic freedom for us all,” the site says.

Kennedy also criticized President Donald Trump in his statements at the panel.

U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III speaks outside his campaign headquarters in Watertown, Massachusetts, after conceding defeat to incumbent U.S. Senator Edward Markey in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

“Donald Trump tells the story of America,” Kennedy said. “And the fact that this is a story written about America is interesting enough to a large enough population. It’s a story of America. That’s not my belief in the story of America.”

He complained that Democrats were having to defend Democracy while also defending the “status quo” against Trump.

“One of the jiu-jitsus that Donald Trump has done in the last few years is he founded the Democratic Party, which is a party that has traditionally tried to erode these centers of power from corporate America or to consolidate political power in certain channels, to erode that and make it more widespread, to empower everyone, to expand the ‘we,’” he said. “He turned that around and had Democrats suddenly defend the World Trade Organization, defend the rule of law, and defend the status quo. He defended democracy at a time when people were saying, ‘I can’t make a living.'”

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“The question now is, ‘How does the Democratic Party define itself in the midst of this administration, which is by definition an establishment because they have the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and they are in power, and they are tearing down the structures of those same institutions?'”

A spokesperson for the Harvard Kennedy School told Fox News Digital that the school is home to a wide range of political leaders from both sides of the political aisle.

“To be good public leaders, our students must learn to move beyond disagreements and partisan lines, which is why we are intentionally bringing voices from across the political spectrum to campus,” he said in the statement. “Harvard Kennedy School is proud to be one of the only places in America where students can interact with politicians from both ends of the political spectrum, such as Nancy Mace and Pramila Jayapal, managers of both presidential campaigns, or senior advisors to President Biden and President Trump, often on the same day, or even at the same time.”

State Department officials said they will begin examining all visa holders associated with Harvard University, not just student visas. (Blake Nissen for The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“The purpose of this event was for leaders to speak about the importance of building bridges across our political divides, an important goal regardless of the speakers’ political affiliations,” the statement continued. “A particular event like this may contain viewpoints that people on either side may find unbalanced, but there is always another event and another speaker who provides a different perspective.”

The school noted that it has recently hosted high-profile conservatives such as Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Chris Lacivita, Ambassador Nikki Haley, Vice President Mike Pence, Scott Jennings, Kevin McCarthy, Governor Eric Holcomb, Senator Pat Toomey, Senator Rick Scott, Governor Asa Hutchinson, Ambassador John Bolton and others.

Particular attention was drawn to Pence’s call for politicians to “disagree without being unpleasant.”

“Since the Institute of Politics’ founding, our mission has been to engage the left, right, and center of the American political spectrum, and we remain deeply committed to that mission today.”