Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in prison for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, and Sean Spicer, the former White House Press Secretary for Donald Trump, are two of the latest individuals to be named visiting fellows at Harvard University, the school announced Wednesday.
“Broadening the range and depth of opportunity for students to hear from and engage with experts, leaders and policy shapers is a cornerstone of the Institute of Politics [IOP],” said Bill Delhunt, acting director of the institute at the Harvard Kennedy School. “We welcome the breadth of thought-provoking viewpoints on race, gender, politics and the media.”
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in August 2013 after leaking more than 700,000 classified or sensitive military and diplomatic documents. Manning came out as transgender while in prison and was released this past May after having her sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama. As the first transgender fellow, Manning will speak on issues regarding LGBTQ in the military.
Spicer served as press secretary for President Trump before resigning in July.
Spicer previously said that President Obama’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence was “disappointing” and “sends a very troubling message when it comes to the handling of classified information.”
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol tweeted Wednesday that he would forego IOP events in the fall due to Manning’s presence at Harvard.
Manning tweeted in response: “Awesome! Can you ask Sean Spicer to do the same?”
(Twitter)
Other fellows at Harvard include MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign manager Robby Mook, and Corey Lewandowski, the former Trump campaign manager who was caught on video manhandling a protester.
