Advertisement
Republicans are demanding that President Joe Biden personally condemn the “hate-filled little Gazans” that have popped up on college campuses across the country. On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton used that language to describe university institutions, saying they have turned into “disgusting cesspools of anti-Semitic hatred full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics and freaks.”
“When will the president himself, and not his spokesmen, condemn these hate-filled little Gazans?” Cotton asked. At the White House news conference, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized that Biden had done his part — despite not answering questions about the university demonstrations or addressing them in a speech or public appearance.
‘He is closely monitoring the situation. So does his team. And I would like to add that no president, no president, has spoken more forcefully about combating anti-Semitism than this president,” Jean-Pierre said. She was the latest of a trio of White House spokespeople to answer questions about Biden’s feelings about the mass demonstrations.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement Tuesday after Columbia University students and some outside agitators took over Hamilton Hall and hung a banner reading “intifada,” among other signs. The phrase is used to encourage violence against Jews and Israelis.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called the forced takeover of a building on Columbia’s campus “absolutely the wrong approach” when asked about the demonstrations during a news conference Tuesday morning. “Taking over a building by force is not peaceful,” Jean-Pierre repeated on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Biden traveled to Wilmington, Delaware for a mysterious campaign event, filming some sort of content at the same high school where he rolled out Kamala Harris as his VP pick. He did not answer questions during the trip and the group of reporters who followed him were kept in a separate room for hours.
The president has no public events scheduled for Wednesday, until a political fundraiser early in the evening. Last night in New York, the NYPD was called in to break up pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on Columbia and other college campuses.
The White House would not say whether this was the correct response – or whether the president had been in contact with New York’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams. “That’s a decision that colleges and universities have to decide on,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre was pressed several times about whether the president considered the protests ‘legitimate’. “We believe and understand that this is a painful moment for many communities,” she responded. “And we also believe that people have the right, Americans have the right to protest peacefully.” “Hate speech should not be allowed, we must condemn it,” she also replied.