'Better late than never': Vivek Ramaswamy says Harvard should hire on merit after plagiarist Claudine Gay resigns

Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy responded to former Harvard President Claudine Gay's resignation on Tuesday in a post on X saying it was "better late than never." 

In an X post, Ramaswamy slammed Harvard University for their handling of the situation and talked about his own experience helping to appoint a new Harvard president.  

"Harvard’s President Claudine Gay just resigned…better late than never," Ramaswamy started with his post.  

Ramaswamy reflected on his experience at his former school, where he was involved in the process of appointing a new school president when previous Harvard President Larry Summers stepped down.  

"I was one of 3 students appointed to the advisory board to select Harvard’s new President in 2007 after Larry Summers was forced to resign after his supposedly 'misogynistic' comments (which were badly distorted)," Ramaswamy posted.  

"Back then, it was a foreordained conclusion that the next President would be a woman, no questions asked - shut up, sit down, do as you’re told," he continued.  

He called it a "thinly veiled exercise" to get a president who would check the right boxes for race and gender.  

Ramaswamy ended his post saying, "Here’s a radical idea for the future: select leadership based on *merit.* It’s a great approach, actually." 

In other posts on X, Ramaswamy has said that Gay's appointment is similar to the appointment of Vice President Kamala Harris in that they were chosen for their race and gender.  

The earlier post came right after Gay was hit with six more allegations of plagiarism at the start of the new year, the Washington Free Beacon reports.  

"The Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college admissions. Now time to end it in university hiring," Ramaswamy said of Gay’s record as Harvard President.  

In Gay's resignation letter, she told the Harvard community that it was been "distressing" for her to have doubts surrounding her "commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor." 

In addition, she blamed "personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus" for the course of events that have followed since her appearance in a congressional hearing regarding antisemitism earlier in December.