This article is a segment of Fox News Digital’s investigative series, Campus Radicals. Read the entire series here.
A recent panel discussion held at Harvard University, intended to explore ways to mend the bipartisan divide, featured exclusively left-leaning voices. The panel included two former Democratic politicians and the leader of a prominent organization known for its support of progressive causes.
On October 9, the event titled “Across the Divide: Organizing to Build Bridges in Partisan Times,” welcomed former Democratic Congressman Joe Kennedy, ex-Mayor of New Orleans and former Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu, along with Derrick Johnson, the President of the NAACP. The discussion was led by Alison King, a former reporter for NBC Boston.
During his introductory statement, Johnson remarked, “When I first heard about the political divide, I felt compelled to address it differently, as it has evolved into a national crisis threatening our democracy.”
Two women are seen walking through a gate at Harvard Yard, Harvard University, on September 30, 2025, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Johnson further expressed his views, aligning with Democratic perspectives on the ongoing government shutdown.
“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 at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Aug. 19, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
He said 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.
“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.”
Mitch Landrieu appears on stage during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Aug. 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.”
“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.
Rep. Joe Kennedy III speaks outside his campaign headquarters after conceding defeat to incumbent Sen. Edward Markey, 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.’”
“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.”
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. (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 Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump advisors Kellyanne Conway, Chris LaCivita, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, CNN commentator Scott Jennings, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, former Gov. Eric Holcomb, former Sen. Pat Toomey, Sen. Rick Scott, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former 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.”
