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Veteran news anchor Connie Chung slammed President Donald Trump and the current state of the media at a Harvard Graduate School of Education event on Sunday.

The event, which had roughly 150 attendees, was part of the school’s “Let’s Talk!” speaker series, which hosts speakers to talk about “ways of promoting the success and well-being of Asian and Asian American students.” The event was moderated by HGSE senior lecturer Josephine M. Kim.

“We have to roll back whatever Trump is rolling in because he is not with us, he’s against us,” Chung said. “I’m just holding my breath because I fear greatly, and if you happen to have voted for him, it’s okay, a lot of people did. But unfortunately, I don’t think we’re in a good place.”

Chung said it was especially important for journalists to speak up during the current political moment.

“If we don’t speak up, who will? Because even the law firms are caving,” she added, apparently referencing elite law firms’ decisions to negotiate with the Trump administration after being targeted by executive orders. “What is with these people? How can they cave? I just don’t understand. So, people have to rise to the occasion.”

Chung — who has worked at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC — said she feels news outlets are currently too focused on ratings and partisanship, instead of objective reporting.

“I can’t find facts, and I’m dying to read facts and listen to facts,” she said. “All you get are these people yelling at each other, arguing with each other, expressing their opinions. I don’t care what they think.”

“Don’t listen to these bloviators,” she added

Chung urged attendees not to watch networks who sensationalized their reporting.

“That’s the way you can get them out the door,” she said. “If you watch, they’ll get the ratings.”

Chung also discussed her success as an Asian-American woman in journalism, which was then a predominantly white and male-dominated field. She described working in “a sea of men” and said in order to make it in the industry, she decided she was “just going to be a guy.”

“I'll take pages from their playbook. I'll have bravado. I'll walk into a room and own it. I will have confidence. I will have chutzpah. And – not proud of it – I had a potty mouth,” she said.

“I had so convinced myself that I was just another white guy that when I walked past the mirror and I see a Chinese woman staring back–” she quipped, making a face of shock.

Chung said that she had to overcome sexual harassment her career — especially early on while she was working on Capitol Hill. She described Henry Kissinger ‘50, for example, as a “creep” who would flirt with her.

She also added that John Mitchell, who was President Richard Nixon’s Attorney General, would tell her she looked “pretty” while she asked him questions.

When Kim asked Chung how she wants to be remembered in the future, Chung said she wanted to be remembered as “a badass” — to thunderous applause from the audience.

—Staff writer Evan H.C. Epstein can be reached at evan.epstein@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X at @Evan_HC_Epstein.