House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling Wednesday for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign over her handling of anti-Israel demonstrations on campus, calling her “very weak” and “inept.”
Johnson said during a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that he is holding a press conference at Columbia University later today “with some of my colleagues from the House Republicans from New York to call on the president of the university to resign.”
“This President Shafik has shown to be a very weak, inept leader. They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students? They are expected to run for their lives and stay home from class? It’s maddening,” Johnson said. “What we are seeing on these college campuses across the country is disgusting and unacceptable and every leader in this country, every political official, every citizen of good conscience has to speak out and say that ‘this is not who we are in America.’ And we got to have accountability and that is what my colleagues and I will be working on.”
New York House Republicans on Monday, in a joint letter, have called for Shafik to step down. On Wednesday, Columbia University posted on its website that “Student protesters have committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents” at an encampment there, among other efforts to ease tensions from the anti-Israel demonstrations.
“We have Jewish students who have actually been physically assaulted, they have been harassed, they have been intimidated and threatened… we need to revoke federal funding to these universities if they cannot keep control,” Johnson said. “We need to revoke these student visas for these violent protesters. You don’t have a right to be here and to do this, but Jewish students have a right to be able to peacefully attend classes. They are trying to get an education. This is just madness.
Johnson also told Hewitt that “I’ve seen some of these man on the street interviews with some of these kids who are protesting, you and I both know the vast majority of them have no idea what they are talking about.
LIVE UPDATES: ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ON US COLLEGE CAMPUSES
“They don’t know the facts, some of them are denying that October 7 even happened. It’s ridiculous,” he continued. “And we are relying on and calling upon and demanding these university officials to get control of the situation, it’s just completely out of control right now.”
Johnson also took a swipe at the Biden administration for its handling of the matter, saying “The real problem we have right now is that we are not getting strong leadership, obviously from the White House, or even some Democrats in Congress.”
“The White House is caving to the antisemitic – I call it the pro-Hamas wing – of the party right now. They have backpedaled on their support for Israel and you have got members of Congress who refuse to denounce even the chants of ‘Death to America!’, they just go silent, they won’t call that out,” he added. “Some Democrat members of Congress are even calling these antisemitic mobs ‘peaceful protesters’ and defending the harassment and intimidation of all the rest. It’s really become a serious problem and they are allowing mob rule to overtake the American ideals of free speech, the free exchange of ideas and the free exercise of religion. This is not who we are.”
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