Washington Reporter: EXCLUSIVE: Pressure from Rep. Pat Harrigan led to a controversial climate activist's resignation: He "built his career on hyper-partisan attacks and junk science, not objective inquiry"

Contact: Lexi Kranich (814) 380-4408

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A freshman Republican is spiking the football after a controversial climate activist resigned from his position at the University of Pennsylvania.

Immediately following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Penn’s Michael Mann reposted comments calling Kirk the “head of Trump’s Hitler Youth.” Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), who represents Penn, was quick to demand “immediate, decisive action” against Mann.

But so too did Rep. Pat Harrigan (R., N.C.) — who sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. “Penn doesn’t get to hide behind statements or hand-waving,” Harrigan said after Mann’s latest controversial comments. “Fire him.”

Now — after Mann resigned from his position as Vice Provost at Penn — Harrigan told the Washington Reporter that the move is “long overdue.”

Mann’s resignation, Harrigan said, “is a first step, but universities and policymakers should stop pretending Michael Mann ever represented science. What he represents is everything that has corroded public trust in higher education: bias, dishonesty, and contempt for the people he claims to serve.”

“This is the same professor who called Charlie Kirk the ‘head of Trump’s Hitler Youth,’ joked about ‘white on white violence,’ and once declared that the Republican Party needed to be ‘destroyed,’” Harrigan noted. “He has even been sanctioned in court for knowingly feeding false data to a jury.”

“As a member of the House Science Committee, I take seriously the need for integrity in research and policy,” Harrigan said. “Scientists who advocate armed militias against political opponents or peddle manipulated data have no business lecturing Congress or our children about ‘disinformation.’”

For years, Mann’s record as an academic has drawn scrutiny both in and out of America’s judicial system. Following his resignation, Steve Guest noted that “Mann has also called for people to take up arms and form a militia against President Trump.”

Guest was criticizing Politico for its coverage of Mann, which lionized the academic’s record. Harrigan echoed the sentiment, noting to the Reporter that “outlets like Politico spin this as if Mann is a victim of partisanship.”

“The truth is simple,” Harrigan concluded. Mann “built his career on hyper-partisan attacks and junk science, not objective inquiry.”