WASHINGTON â President Biden is privately “monitoring” a wave of pro-terror, anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses across the country, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday â nine full days since the chief executive last made an in-person statement on the unrest.
“He is monitoring the situation closely, so is his team,” Jean-Pierre said at her regular briefing when asked why Biden, 81, hasn’t personally addressed the chaos since answering a reporter’s shouted question on April 22 following an Earth Day event in Virginia.
Biden kept a low profile even as the NYPD stormed Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall Tuesday night to clear out dozens of activists who barricaded themselves in the building â and pro- and anti-Israel activists brawled at a tent encampment at UCLA.
The president’s most recent public remark on the crises was to say that he condemned both antisemitism at campus protests and people unsympathetic to Palestinians â a comment widely likened to then-President Donald Trump’s August 2017 decision to praise and denigrate “both sides” of deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Va., over the removal of a Confederate statue.
âI condemn the antisemitic protests, thatâs why Iâve set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who donât understand whatâs going on with the Palestinians,” Biden said at the time.
Jean-Pierre bristled Wednesday at a NBC reporter’s comparison of Biden’s comment to Trump’s memorable moment.
“No, he isn’t doing a ‘both sides’ here,’” Jean-Pierre chided the journalist. “That was just vile, nasty rhetoric… there was no ‘both sides’ here, none, absolutely none.”
The top White House spokeswoman added that NBC’s correspondent had acted in “bad faith to say that”
Protest encampments have been set up at many colleges around the country ahead of final exams â with George Washington University, just blocks from the White House, hosting its own encampment featuring a large banner that says “Just Say No to Genocide Joe.”
Protests at GWU show no sign of abating after six days of occupying U-Yard. pic.twitter.com/LjS7qSxr30
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) April 30, 2024
Biden has repeatedly been heckled with that nickname, with participants in a DC march this past November daubing the front gates of the White House with the legend in red paint.
The president faces a tight re-election campaign against Trump, 77, and Democrats broadly are concerned that his generally pro-Israel stance will alienate younger voters, Muslim Americans and Arab Americans, especially in crucial swing states like Michigan.
The unrest on college campuses is believed to portend clashes at the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago that may overshadow both Biden’s nomination for a second term and his attempt to argue that Trump would unleash chaos if he returns to office.
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