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A panel at Harvard University billed as a discussion on bridging the bipartisan divide featured only members of the political left, including two Democrats who previously held elected office and the head of a high-profile group known for supporting left-wing causes.
The participants in the Oct. 9 panel, called “Across the Divide: Organizing to Build Bridges in Partisan Times,” were former Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy; former Democratic New Orleans Mayor and Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu; and NAACP President Derrick Johnson. The event was moderated by former NBC Boston reporter Alison King.
“When I heard the initial question about the political divide, I kind of shift, because we no longer have a political divide, we have a national crisis in our democracy,” Johnson said in his opening remarks.
Two women walk through a gate from Harvard Yard at Harvard University, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
He then invoked Democratic talking points about the current government shutdown.
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“And as we look at the government shutdown now, let me share my opinion,” he said. “It’s based on 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 there’s a political divide anymore, I think it’s a national crisis of our democracy.”
Landrieu, who served as the co-chair of Kamala Harris‘ unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign and as the co-chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, opened by bragging about “taking down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans.”
Landrieu also served in the Biden administration as the senior advisor for coordinating the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
President and CEO of the NAACP Derrick Johnson speaks on Day one of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 19, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
He said that his organization, E Pluribus Unum, focuses on reaching across the political aisle to teach people about diversity and how to talk about race.
He then pivoted to defending DEI, and without prompting, attacked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
“Like, Pete Hegseth is not qualified. You feel me on this? He’s a DEI hire,” he said, receiving applause from the audience, before launching into more left-wing talking points.
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“In my opinion, diversity is the nation’s greatest strength. It is our superpower,” said Landrieu. “That word indivisibility means that we’re so tightly bound that when we do it this way nobody can beat us. And when we come out of many and become one, nobody has ever beaten the United States of America when we did it.”
Co-Chair and Committee Co-Chair Mitch Landrieu appears on stage during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Kennedy founded an organization called The Groundwork Project, which he said has had a “great partner” in the NAACP “from the beginning.”
“In the fight to defend American democracy, frontline community organizers are our single most impactful asset,” the organization’s website says. It goes on to claim that “anti-democracy” forces in the Deep South, Appalachia and the Plains have been organizing “largely unopposed for generations.”
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“Today, these investments are bearing fruit, as anti-democracy forces are using the awesome civic power they have accrued 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 during his comments on the panel.
U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III speaks outside his campaign headquarters in Watertown, Mass., after conceding defeat to incumbent U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
“Donald Trump is telling a story of America,” Kennedy said. “And it’s compelling enough to a sizable enough population that that is a story that’s being written about America. One story of America. That is not my belief of the story of America.”
He complained that Democrats have to defend the “status quo” against Trump while also defending Democracy.
“One of the jiu-jitsus Donald Trump did in the last couple of years, was he made a Democratic Party that had traditionally been the party of trying to erode those power centers from corporate America or the consolidation of political power to in certain channels, to erode that and make it more diffuse, to empower everybody, to expand ‘we,'” he said. “He flipped that and made the Democrats, all of a sudden, defending the World Trade Organization, and defending rule of law, and defending the status quo. Defending democracy at a time when people said, ‘I can’t make ends meet.'”
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“The question now is, ‘How does the Democratic Party define itself in the midst of this administration being both an establishment, because they’ve got the House, the Senate and the presidency and they are in power so by definition an establishment, and tearing down the structures of those same institutions?'”
A spokesperson for the Harvard Kennedy School told Fox News Digital that the school hosts a broad spectrum of political leaders from both sides of the political aisle.
“To become good public leaders, our students must learn to engage across disagreements and partisan lines — so we intentionally bring voices to campus from all across the political spectrum,” the statement said. “Harvard Kennedy School is proud to be one of the only places in America where students can engage with politicians from both ends of the political spectrum like Nancy Mace and Pramila Jayapal, with managers of both presidential campaigns, or with senior advisors of President Biden and President Trump — often in the same day or even the same hour.”
State Department officials say they will begin scrutinizing 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 talk about the importance of building bridges across our political divide, which is an important goal regardless of the political affiliations of the speakers,” the statement continued. “A specific event like this may contain viewpoints that people on any side might find unbalanced, but there is always another event — and another speaker — providing a different perspective.”
The school noted that it has recently hosted high-profile conservatives like 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 many others.
It specifically pointed to Pence’s call for politicians to “disagree without being disagreeable.”
“Since the founding of the Institute of Politics, our mission has been to engage with the left, right, and center of the American political spectrum — and we remain deeply committed to that mission today.”