A new report indicates that former President Barrack Obama "lobbied" for Claudine Gay, the Harvard president embroiled in an antisemitism controversy. 

The report comes from Jewish Insider.

Gay is one of three university presidents who have faced an intense backlash after they refused, during congressional testimony, to explicitly condemn the antisemitism that is taking place on their campuses.

Gay, thus far, has survived calls for her resignation. And, Harvard has made it clear that it stands behind Gay.

Earlier this month, the university wrote:

As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.

The Washington Examiner reports that "The vote of confidence in Gay came following a petition backing the president, which received signatures from more than 700 Harvard faculty members."

It now turns out that Obama, a former Harvard graduate, is among those who came to Gay's defense, according to Jewish Insider.

The outlet cites "a source familiar with the matter" for its report, and this source told the outlet that Obama "privately lobbied on Gay's behalf."

"According to a source familiar with the matter, Obama, a Harvard graduate, had privately lobbied on Gay’s behalf as she faced pressure to resign in the wake of her disastrous appearance before the congressional hearing on antisemitism," Jewish Insider reports.

The outlet continues, "'It sounded like people were being asked to close ranks to keep the broader administration stable — including its composition,' the source, who was informed of Obama’s outreach and asked to speak anonymously to discuss a confidential matter, told JI on Tuesday."

Obama, according to Jewish Insider, refused to comment on their report.

In many ways, it should not be surprising that Obama came to the aid of Gay. Obama himself has also been at the center of an antisemitism controversy for public remarks that he has made about the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In November, Obama said:

What Hamas did was horrific, and there is no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable, and what is also true is that there is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents, or your great-great-grandparents, or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism, and what is true is that there are people right now that are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did.

He added, "If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree."