The White House danced around questions Tuesday regarding the string of pro-Palestinian protests taking place on college campuses across the country, condemning displays of antisemitism from some protesters while also declining to say if President Joe Biden planned any type of interaction with the activists.
Students began camping out on the green at Columbia University last week, resulting in more than 100 arrests, and protests have also spread to Yale University, Harvard University, the University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Michigan in the ensuing days. Some of the protesters are directly calling for Biden to change his policies pursuant to Israel and its offensive in Gaza.
Biden originally condemned the “vile comments” made by some protesters in a statement issued on Passover Monday, and White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates expanded on those comments while speaking with reporters on Tuesday.
“We must speak out against the alarming surge of antisemitism because silence is complicity,” Bates said. “While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous, and they have no place on any college campus or anywhere in the United States of America.”
Still, when pressed by reporters on any plans to engage with the protesters or congressional lawmakers supporting the student activists, Bates declined to give specifics.
Biden met with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Monday but the White House did not expand on the subject of the meeting. Ocasio-Cortez joined Biden at Monday’s Earth Day celebration in Virginia, where she lauded the “leadership” of the student protesters at Columbia. The president, in turn, suggested that he planned to speak with Ocasio-Cortez after the event about the situation in Gaza.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We know that this is a painful moment for many communities,” Bates continued. “We respect that, and we support every American’s right to peacefully protest. That’s something that we have been consistent about. But as I said, when we witness calls for violence, physical intimidation, hateful, antisemitic rhetoric, those are unacceptable. We will denounce them. The president knows that silence is complicity and that’s why he uses the platforms he has to try to ensure that our fellow Americans are safe.”
Tuesday’s gaggle can be heard in full below.
