The Senate’s top leaders on Tuesday offered bipartisan rebuke for violent pro-Palestinian student demonstrations on college campuses and called for repercussions from higher education institutions.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, decried hammer-wielding student protesters who took control of a Columbia University building in New York early Tuesday morning as “lawlessness” that undercuts free speech.
“Those who did it should promptly face the consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. “Free speech, discussion, and even strong disagreement are fundamental American values, and campuses should be places where those values are cherished.”
He added that those who “veer into criminality” are “doing nothing to convince others that their cause is just.”
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said universities and colleges were continuing to “embarrass themselves with vile antisemitic radicalism” by allowing violent acts to occur.
“They’re not drawing the nation’s attention just because another generation of students has decided to test the limits of the First Amendment with grotesque hate,” McConnell said in a floor speech. “They’re in the news because weakness and inaction from campus leaders has allowed universities to become cauldrons of criminal chaos.”
Avoiding the use of her name, McConnell panned Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for accusing some Jewish Columbia University students last week of being “pro-genocide.”
The anti-Israel protests that have sprung up at colleges and universities across the country also elicited the disapproval of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who testified to senators Tuesday that “what’s happening on our campuses is abhorrent.”
“Hate has no place on our campuses, and I’m very concerned with the reports of antisemitism,” Cardona testified to a Senate Appropriations Committee panel.
Campus leaders, including at Columbia, have begun to suspend or threatened to expel students who have engaged in illegal activity during protests.
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The White House has sought to steer clear of the contentious issue, drawing additional criticism from McConnell.
“Here in Washington, withdraw radical nominees, enforce the Department of Justice and Education to investigate civil rights violations,” he said. “If moral clarity does not prevail in the ivory tower and the Biden Administration, this could go down as a particularly shameful moment in our history.”
