Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday said the public should be concerned about the Trump administration’s recent settlements with Columbia University and CBS.
Columbia on Wednesday agreed to pay $221 million to the Trump administration so it can recoup federal funding, while CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, signed a $16 million settlement with the president earlier this month over editorial content decisions made in former Vice President Harris’s interview with “60 Minutes.”
“I think all of us should be concerned where this goes,” Flake said during a Wednesday appearance on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip.”
“I wouldn‘t want Donald Trump, I wouldn‘t want Joe Biden, I wouldn‘t want anybody, any president, to be the arbiter of what is truth and what is not, and what universities have to do to be able to attract foreign students or what not,” he added.
Columbia’s acting university President Claire Shipman said the deal with the Trump administration would allow the school to maintain its independence and restore funding after a period of “institutional uncertainty.”
However, Flake said the White House’s influence is becoming overarching with recent agreements seeped in directives at schools, news companies and law firms.
“This has gone too far in many areas, particularly with the law firms, basically telling them they‘ve got to pay up or pony up, or they‘re going to be investigated or left aside,” Flake told Phillip.
