In his first extended public remarks on the antiwar protests that have erupted on college campuses across the country, President Joe Biden said he would “always defend free speech,” but condemned the pro-Palestinian encampments as “chaos.” “Violent protest is not protected—peaceful protest is,” Biden said in brief remarks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Thursday. “None of this is peaceful protest,” he added, insisting that “order must prevail.”
Biden’s remarks come amid skyrocketing tensions on school campuses over Israel’s war in Gaza, which has left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead in nearly eight months of hostilities. Biden has publicly been critical of Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict, and his administration has pushed for a ceasefire, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging Hamas to agree to the truce proposal Israel offered up last weekend. But Biden has not substantially altered his policy toward Israel, even as Netanyahu openly defies him.
The administration’s handling of the war in Gaza had been a source of increasing frustration among congressional Democrats for months. But more recently, that frustration has spilled out into universities like Columbia and UCLA, where pro-Palestinian protests are dividing Democrats and drawing attacks from Republicans seeking to score easy political points. “Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students,” former President Donald Trump said at a rally Wednesday, suggesting that Biden has allowed the unrest to flourish.
Increasingly ugly scenes have played out as university administrators crack down on the demonstrations—most recently at UCLA, where police made more than 130 arrests as they forcibly cleared antiwar encampments early Thursday. A California Highway Patrol spokesperson told CNN that flash grenades were used to “get the crowd to pay attention and realize that it’s time to disperse,” while one video appeared to show law enforcement firing rubber bullets at the protesters. The police action came two days after a mob of counterprotesters apparently attacked the pro-Palestinian encampments, including with mace and fireworks, triggering an hourslong confrontation between the groups.
In his remarks Thursday, Biden once again condemned antisemitism. And while he did not address the violence against protesters (and student journalists) at UCLA—or comment on the criticism university administrators and police have faced over their responses to the campus turmoil—he did say states should refrain from calling in the National Guard to quell the protests. (In an infamous incident in 1970, four students were killed and nine others wounded at Kent State University, when the Ohio Army National Guard fired on a Vietnam War protest.)
Biden’s comments, which are unlikely to ease the already-high tensions on campuses, come just as he prepares to give two commencement addresses at West Point and Morehouse College. Also on the horizon is the Democratic National Convention this summer in Chicago, which Democrats increasingly fear could see large-scale protests similar to those in 1968. “I think if the situation doesn’t change dramatically in Gaza, yeah, I think it could be bad,” as a Democratic senator told the Hill recently.
It’s unclear if it will—but given Biden’s apparent firmness on providing Israel with military aid, it certainly could. After the president concluded his brief address Thursday, a reporter asked him if the protests had led him to “reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region.” Biden’s one-word response: “No.”
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