NEW YORK — Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented the possibility that pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University might be treated more leniently than the protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, marking the second time in a week that the former president invoked the ongoing protests on campus to downplay the past. examples of right-wing violence.
Speaking in the hallway of a Manhattan courtroom where his criminal trial is taking place, Trump questioned whether student protesters who seized and barricaded a campus building on Tuesday morning, some of them vandalizing it in the process, would be treated equally. than its president. supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6 to stop the certification of the presidential results.
“I think I can give you the answer right now,” he said. “And that’s why people have lost faith in our judicial system.”
Trump’s remarks demonstrate once again how he and the Republican Party have tried to downplay the deadliest attack on the seat of American power in more than 200 years, arguing that violent or criminal behavior from the left is a greater threat. Trump called the protesters “unbelievable patriots” and spoke openly about the prospect of granting pardons if he wins a second term.
His comments come as he races to reclaim the White House and is dealing with allegations in four separate criminal cases. They promote his position that the charges are being orchestrated by Democrats to keep him out of the White House and that he and his supporters are targets of political persecution by a fundamentally corrupt judicial system.
“They occupied a building. That’s a big problem,” Trump said of the Columbia protesters. “And I wonder if what’s going to happen to them will be anything comparable to what happened with J6, because they’re doing a lot of destruction, a lot of damage, a lot of people getting seriously hurt, I wonder if this will be the same kind of treatment that they gave to the J6. Let’s see how this all works.”
More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes in connection with the Capitol riots. More than 800 of them were convicted, with about two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years. According to the Department of Justice, 89 have pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges of assaulting police officers.
Legal scholars and political scientists have said Trump’s strategy could help his campaign, but point out there are stark differences between Jan. 6 and the campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. College students gathered at camps at Columbia and other campuses to call for a ceasefire and demand that their universities cut financial ties with Israel.
“The Columbia protests are not intended to impede the peaceful transition of power after an election, so they do not threaten the functioning of U.S. democracy,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert and law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. . school.
Hakeem Jefferson, assistant professor of political science at Stanford University, said the demonstrations at a Columbia building that was also occupied during a civil rights protest in the 1960s reflected a long tradition of college students “pressing the conscience” of their country. .
“This is a protest tradition. Disruptive, for sure. Irritating to university administrators, to be sure,” Jefferson said. “On the contrary, what happened on January 6 was a violent attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. There is no tradition of this in American history. It is unprecedented. And it is That’s why we must, of course, treat it differently.”
Some of the recent protests on campus have resulted in clashes with police and hundreds of students being arrested. Protesters in some parts of the country threw water bottles or other objects at officers, and police used chemical agents to disperse crowds or led them away amid shouting.
Trump’s comments build on a strategy by Republicans and conservative social media influencers to reframe what constitutes an insurrection as part of an ongoing attempt to influence the public’s perception of January 6. put Democrat Joe Biden in the White House.
Some social media users on Tuesday called the takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall an “insurrection” and said the media would not describe it that way because the protesters’ views were aligned with the political left. Fox News used the reference in an article Tuesday about the student protesters, reporting that “the insurrection began at approximately 12:30 p.m.”
Legal experts say the term “insurrection” has a specific meaning — a violent uprising that targets government authority — and that protests that do not involve an attempt to dismantle or replace a government should not be classified as such.
Tuesday was the second time in a week that Trump compared the campus protests to previous examples of right-wing violence.
Last week, he claimed that the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where torch-wielding white supremacists chanted “Jews will not replace us” was “nothing” compared to the anti-Semitism displayed at campus protests.
“The hate wasn’t the kind of hate you have here,” he said.
He returned to the reference in his comment outside court Tuesday, saying, “Charlottesville is a pittance compared to what you’re seeing now.”
Protests on campus have pitted students against each other, and videos show instances of protesters making anti-Semitic comments and violent threats. Some Jewish students say the hateful rhetoric has made them afraid to set foot on campus.
However, protest organizers, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.
Columbia University said Tuesday that students occupying Hamilton Hall would face expulsion.
“Protesters chose to escalate to an untenable situation – vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blocking entrances – and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” said Ben Chang, a university spokesman.
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Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed to this report.
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