Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned amid a mounting firestorm, fueled by right-wing politicians and media, over free speech and support for Palestinian rights on campus. Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, announced she was stepping down Tuesday, just six months into her tenure and weeks after University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s resignation. Both women resigned in the wake of last month’s congressional hearing on antisemitism, where they were grilled by lawmakers, including far-right Congressmember Elise Stefanik, who gloated, ”TWO DOWN,” on social media following yesterday’s news. Sally Kornbluth of MIT is the third president Stefanik is hoping to “take down.”

Following the hearing, conservative activists proceeded to smear Gay’s academic history, accusing her of plagiarism after uncovering instances of inadequate citations in her work. In her resignation letter, Claudine Gay wrote, “It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor … and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.” We’ll have more on this story after headlines.