Biden Accused of Using Student Loan Forgiveness Program to PAY Pro-Palestinian Activists with Taxpayer Money as Campus Protests Continue
Republicans are rejecting Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which provides millions of taxpayer dollars to students, wreaking havoc on anti-Israel protests across the country.
More than 200 protesters have been arrested on the campuses of Columbia University and New York University (NYU) over the past week in connection with their aggressive campaigns against the war between Israel and Hamas.
The protesters – who are demanding that universities divest from Israeli entities and an end to the war in Gaza – have set up camps packed with tents, makeshift food distribution areas, sleeping bags and anti-Israel signs.
Now Republicans are using the protests as a cudgel to reject Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, claiming the president wants to pay the protesters’ bills.
The Republican Party’s criticism comes weeks after Biden wiped out another $7.4 billion in debt for 277,000 borrowers, bringing the total he has forgiven to $153 billion.
“The Biden administration wants hardworking taxpayers to pay off the loans of these pro-terrorist anti-Semites, who in turn fund universities with multibillion-dollar grants that refuse to keep Jewish students safe,” Republican Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. told DailyMail.com in a statement.
NYPD officers are confronted by protesters after detaining demonstrators and clearing a camp set up by pro-Palestinian students and demonstrators on the New York University campus
“If the Biden administration were concerned about the dangerous wave of anti-Semitic violence on our college campuses, they would reverse their unconstitutional course and instead demand action from these broken institutions.”
“But they don’t care; all that matters to Biden is appeasing his radical base,” Emmer added.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., posted a video of the Columbia University encampment with tents and pro-Palestinian signs and banners on X: “These are the people whose student loans Joe Biden wants you to pay off,” he wrote.
“Hamas slaughtered and burned Jews and their babies alive; their bodies paraded through the streets,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted on X.
“Today in the US we have the title of little Ivy League students terrorizing Jews on campus and their punishment? Student loans paid off by American taxpayers. Thank you Joe Biden.”
Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., similarly posted a video of Columbia protesters, writing, “Biden makes you pay for their student loans so they can do this on your dime.”
A total of 4.3 million federal student loan borrowers have forgiven their debts since Biden took office.
However, current students at Columbia and NYU are unlikely to qualify for Biden’s recently announced debt cancellation, as it only applies to borrowers in specific cases.
For example, the latest $7.4 billion student loan forgiveness has strict requirements, one of which requires most borrowers to prove they have been paying off their debt for 10 to 25 years to qualify for forgiveness.
However, there may be limited instances in which current students may qualify for debt forgiveness.
In Columbia, protests have turned violent and Jewish students at the universities have felt in danger as a result of the campus takeover.
The demonstrations at the university were so heated that the Ivy League institution announced it would hold classes partially online for the rest of the academic year.
Hundreds of arrests have been made as a result of last week’s protests on college campuses.
Despite the mass arrests at NYU and Columbia, many, if not all, inmates will not receive criminal records, police said. New York Post. Instead, most will receive a summons, which will not appear on a wrapper sheet.
Police intervene and arrest more than 100 students at NYU who continue their demonstration on campus in solidarity with Columbia University students and to oppose Israel’s attacks on Gaza
In total, more than 200 protesters have been arrested by the NYPD in connection with campus activism
On Tuesday evening, massive anti-Israel protests broke out again outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s New York home.
Notably, Schumer is the highest-ranking Jewish federal official ever elected.
More than 200 anti-Israel protesters were taken into custody by the NYPD after blocking the roads around the Senate leader’s residence, disrupting traffic.
Schumer has not yet spoken publicly about the protests against him, but condemned the protests at Columbia and NYU in a statement on Sunday.
“College campuses should be places of learning and discussion,” he wrote.
“Every American has the right to protest, but when protests shift to anti-Semitism, verbal abuse, intimidation or glorification of the October 7 violence against Jewish people, it crosses the line. Campuses must remain safe for all students.”
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.