Biden Vows to Rein In 'Privilege' in Colleges, But Here's What He Did for His Granddaughter
Special treatment for me, but not for thee?
President Joe Biden last week blasted the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday ruling against affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, a decision that could remake higher education policies across the country.
In a speech following the court’s decision, Biden also pledged to crack down on elite universities’ practice of “legacy admissions,” in which relatives of previous graduates are given preferential treatment in admissions.
“Practices like legacy admissions and other systems expand privilege instead of opportunity,” Biden said.
President Biden said let’s have a real conversation about affirmation action ☕️
Let’s talk about legacy admissions and by the way I already told Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to look into it pic.twitter.com/Mqb0qSLzxt
— Qondi (@QondiNtini) June 29, 2023
However, Biden himself contacted University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann in 2018 as his granddaughter Maisy Biden applied to the school, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
At the behest of Hunter Biden, Maisy Biden’s father, the then-former vice president said he was going to try to speak to “[University of Pennsylvania] Pres GUTMANN tomorrow” in a Dec. 2018 text.
The elder Biden — who is affiliated with a school of international relations at the elite university — later disclosed that he had discussed the topic of Maisy Biden’s admission in a subsequent text.
“Had a great talk with Guttman [sic] Maisy still in the game for regular acceptance,” the elder Biden told his son — himself amid a spiraling drug addiction.
The elder Biden urged his son to arrange tutoring for Maisy.
“We should talk about tutors etc starting tomorrow,” he wrote, according to the Free Beacon.
Biden later indicated that Gutmann would notify him personally if Maisy Biden were admitted to Penn.
“Didn’t tell me but said I’d probably hear from President Guttman before May,” the elder Biden of Penn’s admissions director, according to the Free Beacon.
Maisy Biden was ultimately admitted to Penn, and graduated with a bachelors of arts degree from the school earlier this year, according to Free Beacon.
The extraordinary intervention — in which the president of a university reported directly to a former vice president on the admission of his granddaughter — closely resembles the nepotism that critics of legacy admissions object to.
Biden has at a long-standing relationship with Penn. Beau went, Beau’s daughter went, and Biden has made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the institution. Let’s just say it would be a pleasant surprise if he came out against legacy admissions. https://t.co/gUido9oq0H pic.twitter.com/FMTBPM0V5T
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) June 29, 2023
Biden has received approximately $1 million from Penn in connection to his light duties at the university, according to the New York Post.
Biden subsequently nominated Gutmann to serve as United States ambassador to Germany in 2021. She took up the post in February 2022, according to a State Department news release from the time.
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