Former president Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans are seizing on the eruption of campus protests across the country to depict the United States as out of control under President Biden, seeking to use the mostly peaceful demonstrations as a political cudgel against the Democrats.
The pro-Palestinian protests at numerous colleges including Columbia, Yale, Emory, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and others include encampments and barricades intended to highlight protesters denunciation of Israels military onslaught in Gaza, as well as to push universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Beyond the disruption to campus life, top Republicans have highlighted the antisemitic chants that have occurred at some of the protests. The issue is complicated by a debate over what constitutes antisemitism and when criticism of Israel crosses that line while some student organizers have denounced the chants or said they are coming from outside activists.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has cited the protests to accuse Biden and Democrats of being unable to maintain order or quash lawlessness, an accusation he has leveled at the president on other hot-button political issues. He has also highlighted the protests as a way to air his own political grievances, including the lack of similar demonstrations around his current criminal trial.
On Monday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social, STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!
As the protests have mushroomed in recent days, numerous Republicans have sought ways to highlight them as an example of the countrys slide into chaos. Several Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have visited the campus of Columbia University, the site of some of the most sweeping protests, to call for its president to resign for purportedly failing to contain the demonstrations.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, dispatched more than 100 state troopers to the University of Texas at Austin to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters, resulting in dozens of arrests. All of the charges against the protesters were later dropped for lack of probable cause.
The campus protests present conservatives with some of their favorite targets: elite universities, progressive activists, woke culture and civil rights leaders. In addition, attacking the protests allows Republicans to change the subject from less friendly political terrain, such as abortion rights and the war in Ukraine.
Their rhetoric is harsh in many cases. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have demanded that Biden mobilize the National Guard to protect Jewish Americans on campus. Hawley compared the standoff to the battle over segregation in 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower summoned the National Guard to force the integration of Central High School in Little Rock.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) suggested that the college protesters were mentally unstable. You dont get to turn our public places into a garbage dump. No civilization should tolerate these encampments. Get rid of them, Vance posted on X. If you want to protest peacefully fine. Its your right. But go home and take a shower at the end of the day. These encampments are just gross. Wanting to participate in this is a mental illness.
The GOP rhetoric has not been limited to campus protests, sometimes covering pro-Palestinian actions more broadly, including those that have shut down roads and bridges in some cities. Cotton, in a post on X, urged those who get stuck behind pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic to take matters into your own hands. Following criticism that some might read that as a call to violence, Cotton amended his post to say take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way.
Supporters of the campus protests say they are peaceful, and that accusations of antisemitism are often a pretext to shut down dissenting voices. Many of the Republicans criticizing the protests, they say, condoned or excused the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was far more violent.
The students are peacefully protesting for an end of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the group Jewish Voices for Peace, which supports a cease-fire in Gaza, said of the Columbia protests. We condemn any and all hateful or violent comments targeting Jewish students; however, in shutting down public protest and suspending students, the actions of the University of Columbia are not ensuring safety for Jewish students or any students on campus.
The Israel-Gaza war has deeply fractured the Democratic Party, posing significant political challenges to Biden months ahead of Novembers presidential contest. Biden pledged steadfast support of Israel after Hamas militants stormed through the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took 253 hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel responded with a punishing military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, imposing a siege that has created a humanitarian catastrophe as Gazas health system has collapsed and the population faces a looming famine. The resulting protest movement has electrified many younger voters and progressives, as well as others in the Democratic coalition that Biden needs to repeat his 2020 win, who have called for the United States to impose conditions for aid to Israel or suspend it altogether.
Democrats have voiced a range of views on the legitimacy of the protests, and Biden has sought a balance between condemning antisemitism and supporting students right to protest. Republicans, in contrast, are largely unified in casting the demonstrations as a disgrace, echoing conservative denunciations of the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.
Trump this week called a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville which he said at the time had very fine people on both sides, prompting a bipartisan backlash a peanut compared with the current protests on campuses. Speaking to reporters after attending his criminal trial in New York on Thursday, Trump repeated the comments he wrote on social media and went further. He called the Charlottesville gathering, where a counterprotester was killed, a little peanut and added, it was nothing compared the hate wasnt the kind of hate that you have here.
Trump has contrasted the pro-Palestinian demonstrations with the lack of protests outside the Manhattan courthouse where he is on trial for an alleged hush money scheme. In seeking to blame Biden for the campus protests, Trump has accused the president of hating Israel, Jews and Palestinians, and accused Jewish Democrats of hating their religion. Many of the protesters are Jewish students, and progressive Jewish organizations have helped lead a number of protest movements since the war began in October.
The Courthouse area in Lower Manhattan is in a COMPLETE LOCKDOWN mode, not for reasons of safety, but because they dont want any of the thousands of MAGA supporters to be present, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. If they did the same thing at Columbia, and other locations, there would be no problem with the protesters!
The tone of the criticism is not new; since Biden took office, Trump and other Republicans have pushed the notion that America is descending into chaos and lawlessness on his watch. From illegal immigration to soaring inflation to violent crime, they have regularly painted a picture of a country out of control.
These assertions have often been exaggerated or without context, but Trump has seized on them to promise a fierce crackdown should he return to power.
And during his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump tweeted in response to the large-scale protests over the police killing of George Floyd, which were mostly peaceful but occasionally turned to looting, writing, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. The post was widely criticized for potentially encouraging private citizens, or police officers, to take deadly aim at looters.
Trumps own position on Israel has often been hard to pin down. He has tried to position himself as a firm defender of Israel, but he has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus handling of the war and sought to exploit the fissures in Bidens coalition over U.S. support of Israel.
After the Oct. 7 attack, Trump insulted Israels leaders while praising the intelligence of the Hezbollah militant group. Faced with a backlash to that comment, the former president proposed harsh policies against Muslim migrants, saying he would reimpose his ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries and deport students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
In the weeks after the Hamas massacre, Trump said his administration would revoke student visas of radical, anti-American and antisemitic foreigners. Other Republicans still running for president at the time including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and GOP members of Congress similarly called for the visas of pro-Hamas foreign students to be revoked.
The spread of the college protests has ignited a renewed Republican response. When word circulated last Wednesday that pro-Palestinian protesters were planning to occupy a lawn at the University of Texas, Gov. Abbott sought to show that his Republican-dominated state would not tolerate a repeat of the encampment at Columbia University, dispatching state troopers.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said it responded to the campus at the direction of Abbott, who applauded the crackdown on social media. He said the protesters belong in jail and that any student participating in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at public colleges should be expelled.
Incidents at some universities have fed the criticisms, though pro-Palestinian activists say they are isolated incidents. Video re-emerged this week of a Columbia student who has taken part in the pro-Palestinian protest encampments declaring that Zionists dont deserve to live. The student, Khymani James, made the comments in a video posted in January, although he has since stated that they were wrong. Columbia said it had barred the student from campus, but it was unclear whether he was suspended or expelled.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp (R), following protests in several cities including Chicago and San Francisco, stressed that he would not tolerate anything similar in his state. Recounting a conversation with Georgias public safety commissioner, he said: You know how I feel about people blocking bridges, airports and other things like were seeing around the country. I said, If they do that, lock their ass up.
In New York City, Speaker Johnson and a group of GOP lawmakers visited Columbias campus on Wednesday, where they demanded that the universitys president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, resign for failing to quickly dismantle the pro-Palestine encampments and, in their view, for not doing enough to ensure that Jewish people on campus felt safe.
Their visit appeared to raise tensions, as Johnson was met with boos and pro-Palestinian chants. One student yelled at Johnson to get off our campus, while another shouted, go back to Louisiana, Mike!
And on Capitol Hill, Republicans last week urged the Biden administration to intervene in the demonstrations. Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), a top-ranking House Republican, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on them to deport students who she said are brazenly endorsing Hamas and other terrorist organizations by participating in demonstrations and related events on campus.
Separately, a group of 27 Senate Republicans, including every member of the Senate GOP leadership team, signed onto a letter to Cardona and Garland calling on the administration to take action to restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses.
The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students, the letter said.
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
See original here:
Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden - The Washington Post
- 'Donald Trump Did This': How to Beat MAGA on Border Security - The Bulwark - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Potential Trump running mate JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. have become so close that they text or talk on a 'nearly ... - Business Insider - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Trump Second Term: How the World and U.S. Allies Can Prepare for the Election - Foreign Policy - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Poll: Biden and Trump supporters sharply divided by the media they consume - NBC News - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Master Calendar of Trump Court Dates: Criminal and Civil Cases - Just Security - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's Sleepy, Sleazy Criminal Trial - The New Yorker - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- UK briefing: How Donald Trump plans to survive hush money trial with his campaign intact newsletter - The Guardian - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Opinion | We Are Talking About the Manhattan Case Against Trump All Wrong - The New York Times - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Election 2024: Biden jokes, Trump still leads and updates from the Sunday shows. - The New York Times - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Pans White House Correspondents' Dinner: 'Colin Jost BOMBED' - The Daily Beast - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Trump's Trial Could Bring a Rarity: Consequences for His Words - The New York Times - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Bemoans Really Bad WHCD, Biden & Colin Jost After All Mock Much Indicted Ex-POTUS - Deadline - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- The Supreme Court's epic failure in dealing with Trump's cases - The Hill - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Donald Trump: In America's most important swing state, a key Biden group wants to hand the presidency to Trump. - Slate - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Is Being Ritually Humiliated in Court - The New Yorker - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Joe Biden trails Donald Trump in new national poll on 2024 election - USA TODAY - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Amid Cases on Abortion and Trump, Roberts Reflects on Supreme Court's Work - The New York Times - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Is Used to the Finer Things in Life. At the Courthouse, 'He's Miserable.' - The Wall Street Journal - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- How Trumps Rhetoric at Rallies Has Escalated - The New York Times - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- The Supreme Court Appears Poised to Protect the Presidencyand Donald Trump - The New Yorker - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- The Supreme Court seems divided over Donald Trump's immunity - The Economist - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- John Dean Says 1 Thing 'Keeping Me On The Edge Of My Seat' In Trump Trial - Yahoo! Voices - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Five Moments That Have Defined Donald Trump's Trial So Far - The New York Times - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- How Trumps trial is playing, politically - The Washington Post - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Opinion | The Ukraine aid vote helps, but U.S. allies complacency would be unwise - The Washington Post - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Hey, SCOTUS your hypocrisy is showing - The Hill - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Bill Barr Is Happy to Debase Himself for Donald Trump Again Mother Jones - Mother Jones - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- The Supreme Court is likely to place Donald Trump above the law in its immunity case - Vox.com - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- RFK is openly gunning for Trump voters now and Republicans are starting to worry - Salon - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Trump Pushes Immigration Conspiracy Theories and Mass Deportations - The New York Times - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Nikki Haley makes surprise appearance on SNL, mocking Donald Trump and Joe Biden - NPR - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Trump feud with UAW reaches fever pitch - The Hill - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump tightens his grip on GOP, bolsters ties with Mike Johnson - USA TODAY - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- 1/31/24 - 2024 Matchups: Biden Opens Up Lead Over Trump In Head-To-Head, Quinnipiac University National Poll ... - Quinnipiac University Poll - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Here's how 2 sentences in the Constitution rose from obscurity to ensnare Donald Trump - Yahoo News - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump floats tariff of more than 60% on imports from China and denies it would start a trade war - Fortune - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Jeffries on House Republicans: Wholly owned subsidiaries of Donald Trump - The Hill - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Ex-DOJ Official Says He's 'Now At The Freakout Stage' Over 1 Donald Trump Case - Yahoo News - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Nikki Haley to GOP: Let's wait to see if Donald Trump is convicted - USA TODAY - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Why Supreme Court appeal will be no 'open mic night' for Donald Trump - USA TODAY - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Nikki Haley hits Donald Trump during 'SNL' sketch ahead of SC primary - USA TODAY - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's legal fees are draining his campaign funds - The Economist - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Mentions These Names When Asked About Vice Presidential Picks - NDTV - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Trump's lead over Biden may be smaller than it looks - The Economist - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Tory rising star described Donald Trump as 'refreshing' - The Independent - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Joe Biden v Donald Trump - where contest will be won and lost - BBC.com - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's fed trial on election interference postponed from March - USA TODAY - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Inside Trump's growing influence over congressional Republicans - POLITICO - POLITICO - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Federal judge postpones Trump's March 4 election interference trial - NPR - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Trump Says He Would Not Reappoint Powell as Fed Chair if Elected - Bloomberg - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- I Prosecuted Donald Trump and Won. Here's How It's Done. - The Daily Beast - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Loses London Case Against Ex-MI6 Spy Over Kremlin Dossier - Bloomberg - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- After Speedy Start, Appeals Court Slows Down on Trump Immunity Decision - The New York Times - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump and UAW President Shawn Fain exchange barbs: 'Get rid of this dope' - USA TODAY - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Donald Trump dispels rumors that he reached out to RFK Jr for VP: Never happened - Fox News - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- How Donald Trump Got Disqualified From The Ballot And His Entire Candidacy Wound Up Before The Supreme Court - HuffPost - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Trump Says Nikki Haley Is Unlikely to Be His Running Mate - The New York Times - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Goes From Calm To Indignant In Newly Released Deposition Video Of Civil Fraud Lawsuit - HuffPost - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Trump: Haley 'probably ... is not going to be chosen as the vice president' - POLITICO - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Trump returns to New Hampshire as primary nears - The Washington Post - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Boris Johnson: Trump's return could be 'big win for the world' - POLITICO Europe - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Zelenskyy invites Trump to Kyiv POLITICO - POLITICO Europe - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- 'New Hampshire Is Close to a Make-or-Break for Keeping the Nomination Out of Donald Trump's Hands.' - POLITICO - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Trump's pitch in New Hampshire is more about Nikki Haley as he hopes for big win - NPR - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's tax cuts would add to American growthand debt - The Economist - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's populism is turning off corporate donors - The Economist - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Why DeSantis Says Trump's Romp in Iowa Is Actually a Sign of His Weakness - The New York Times - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- The GOP Is Already Clashing Over Trump's VP Pick - POLITICO - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- There is still a way to stop Donald Trump but time is running out - The Guardian - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- The Davos Consensus: Donald Trump Will Win Re-Election - The New York Times - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Maine Secretary of State to Appeal Ruling on Her Decision to Exclude Trump From Ballot - The New York Times - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Vice President Harris says she's 'scared as heck' that Donald Trump could win - The Associated Press - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- What is the point of coming second to Donald Trump? - The Economist - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Thousands Sign Christian Petition Urging Bishops Not to Back Donald Trump - Newsweek - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Why Donald Trump Is Facing E. Jean Carroll in Court a Second Time - The New York Times - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Claims He Will Never Allow Creation of CBDC in the US if Reelected - Yahoo Finance - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Keller @ Large: What Donald Trump's win in Iowa means for the presidential race - CBS Boston - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Donald Trump tries to twist felony charges, lawsuits after Iowa win - USA TODAY - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Donald Trump Just Incriminated Himself on Truth Social: Legal Analyst - Newsweek - January 20th, 2024 [January 20th, 2024]
- Putin 'Actively Hoping' to Get Donald Trump Back as President: Ret. General - Newsweek - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]