“Sometimes I want to just see him impeached other times, quite honestly — I hope there are no FBI agents here — I wouldn’t mind seeing him dead,” said Barry Bluestone , a professor of political economy, during a Jan. 31 lecture focused on the rule of law and inequality in the United States. The lecture was open and free to the public. Video from the lecture was uploaded to YouTube on Monday.

Northeastern University is distancing itself from comments made by a prominent economics professor who recently said he wouldn’t mind seeing President Trump dead.


In the video, Bluestone, the founding director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern, was responding to a question about a “path forward” for the nation when he made the comments.

In a statement released Wednesday, university spokeswoman Renata Nyul said Bluestone’s comments “do not reflect the views of Northeastern.”

“The university and its leaders steadfastly oppose violence in all its forms,” she said in the statement. “While faculty members are free to express controversial opinions, the university cannot provide a public platform for comments that could be construed to condone violence. As a result, we have decided to take down the video of this event.”

During a phone interview Wednesday evening, Bluestone, who has taught at Northeastern since 1999, said he does not condone violence and said he strongly opposes assassinating the president.

“That would be as bad as he is,” Bluestone said. “That’s not how we change things in this country.”