More than 1,000 Harvard alumni sign petition to rescind Spicer, Lewandowski invites

More than 1,000 Harvard alumni have signed onto an open letter urging the university to rescind its fellowship offers to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

“Sean Spicer served as the mouthpiece for an administration that runs counter to the values Harvard purports to embody,” states the letter, addressed to Harvard President Drew Faust and the Harvard Institute of Politics Leadership. 

“Corey Lewandowski, who managed a campaign that began with racist provocation and continued with rampant misogyny, was ousted from the Trump orbit after assaulting a female reporter, and has supplemented his notoriety with ignorant fulminations on national newscasts,” it adds.

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The petition was first reported by The Daily Beast.

Harvard announced last week that Lewandowski and Spicer would join the Institute of Politics as visiting fellows for the 2017-2018 academic year.

It was also announced that Chelsea Manning would join as a visiting fellow. Her invitation was withdrawn two days later amid backlash that included the resignation of former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell from his post as a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

In the letter calling for Spicer’s and Lewandowski’s offers to be rescinded, the alumni argue that the two men do not add to a constructive political discourse at the university. 

“We recognize the importance of representing a broad slate of different ideologies in the education of Harvard undergraduates,” the letter reads. “But there are many who advance conservative ideals, and can enlighten students about America’s geographic and ideological diversity, without serving as mouthpieces for the worst our country has to offer.”