Rep. Lori Trahan calls for Harvard to bar Summers from teaching students
Representative Lori Trahan on Wednesday became the second member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to call for Harvard to bar its former president Larry Summers from teaching students following recent revelations about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.“The emerging details about Larry Summers’ years-long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, extending all the way up to Epstein’s arrest, raise serious questions about Summers’ judgment and his conduct as Harvard’s president at the time,” Trahan, who represents Massachusetts’ Third District, said in a statement. Harvard, she added, “should undertake a thorough and independent investigation to determine whether ethical standards or obligations to students were compromised. In the meantime, I believe it would be highly inappropriate for Summers to teach or interact with students in any capacity.”Trahan’s comments, first reported by the Harvard Crimson, come as Summers has remained under fire following the release of tens of thousands of emails belonging to Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender. The emails illustrated Summers’ relationship with Epstein, including correspondence in which he sought romantic advice, discussed President Trump, and agreed to meet with people Epstein suggested.Summers said Monday evening he was “deeply ashamed of my actions” and would step back from public commitments “as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.” Organizations including OpenAI, the Center for American Progress, and Bloomberg News all confirmed Summers, who previously served in the Obama and Clinton administrations, had cut ties.But Summers said at the time he would continue in his roles at Harvard, where he heads the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and serves as an economics professor. He told students in his introductory economics class on Tuesday that while he regrets his correspondence with Epstein, he believed “it’s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations.”His remarks came after Senator Elizabeth Warren, an emerita Harvard law professor who has often sparred with Summers, became the most prominent Harvard affiliate to call on the university to cut ties with him. Summers’ “willingness to cozy up to a convicted sex offender demonstrates monumentally bad judgment,” she told CNN Monday.“Larry Summers has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted. Period. That includes no trust for the advice he gives or for teaching students anywhere,” the Massachusetts Democrat told the Globe Wednesday.Jim Puzzanghera of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
