By Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Escalating campus protests are forcing U.S. president Joe Biden tread a careful line of calling out anti-Semitism while supporting the right of young Americans to protest and trying to limit long-term political damage.
As violent police crackdowns and counter-protests fuel demonstrations that spread across U.S. campuses, Biden faces fierce criticism of his Israel policy from both the left and right.
Students from dozens of schools have gathered or camped out in recent days to oppose Israel’s war in Gaza, demanding that the institutions stop doing business with companies that support the war.
Anti-war protests and Biden’s strong support for Israel have dogged the president since late last year and divided his Democratic Party. On Wednesday, 57 Democrats in Congress called on Biden to suspend aid to Israel in a bid to thwart a planned attack on Rafah.
Senior Biden aides privately reject the idea that the protests or their supporters could cost Biden the White House in November’s presidential election. They point to the relatively small number of participants, compared to around 41 million eligible “Gen Z” voters in 2024.
The White House has rolled out a series of policies favorable to young voters in recent days, issuing new student loan relief announcements, long-planned measures to reduce criminal marijuana penalties and condemning a new six-week abortion ban that went into effect Wednesday in Florida.
Biden has spoken rarely, and cautiously, about the campus protests. “I condemn the anti-Semitic protests,” he said on April 22. “I also condemn those who do not understand what is happening to the Palestinians.”
But, at least as long as the school year continues, the protests will not go away. Republicans and conservative media seized on the issue to criticize Biden.
Some rank-and-file Democrats warn that young voters, already indifferent to Biden, may abandon him over Israel.
More than 34,000 people have died in Gaza, local officials say, after Israeli strikes in retaliation for the Hamas attack on October 7, which Israel says killed 1,200.
The US is one of the main providers of military aid to Israel and has protected the country from critical United Nations votes.
Biden campaign research shows that the majority of 2024 voters, including young people, will choose a president based on issues such as the economy, not Gaza.
Its youth-friendly policies implemented in recent days are not enough to secure support, said Elise Joshi, executive director of Gen-Z for Change, a group of young online political activists.
“I welcome the policies on marijuana reform and student debt, but the president has had no say in these protests, which is a priority for young voters across the country,” Joshi said. “The White House is condemning the student protesters, but we have heard nothing about those who attacked the protesters.”
‘RAGING LUNATICS’
Republicans, however, have used the protests to label some Democrats as chaos merchants and anti-Semites.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday praised New York police officers who stormed a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian students and called the protesters “raging lunatics.”
Biden, Trump added, was “nowhere to be found.”
Republican campaigns accuse Democrats of supporting “anti-Semitism” and “pro-terrorism protesters” while promoting vulnerable incumbents such as Reps. Mike Lawler and Anthony D’Esposito, who represent both New York’s swing districts. York with a large number of Jewish voters.
Biden has not visited any campuses to discuss the demonstrations, but is expected to give commencement addresses later this month, including at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where some students and faculty called for the president’s invitation to be withdrawn.
Nsé Ufot, founder of New South Super PAC, said Democrats risk their support with young voters if they don’t listen to their anger over Gaza.
“The narrative has changed,” said Ufot, who has worked to excite young black voters in the competitive electoral state of Georgia. “They should listen to their base.”
A Quinnipiac University poll last month found 46% support for aid to Israel in the war against Hamas and 44% opposition. But among registered U.S. voters ages 18 to 34, just 25% supported aid to Israel and 66% opposed it.
A March Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that Americans aged 18 to 29 favored Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points – 29% to 26% – with the remainder favoring another candidate or not knowing who would get their vote. . Biden won the youth vote by 24 points in 2020.
Asked whether Biden was concerned about the possibility of losing the youth vote in the November elections due to the protests, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday pointed to actions on student debt and climate change.
“The president has taken a lot of policy actions here that he knows are important to young people, and many of these actions are popular with young people,” she said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jim Oliphant; additional reporting by Nandita Bose, David Morgan, Andrea Shalal and Susan Heavey; writing by Trevor Hunnicutt. Editing by Heather Timmons and Diane Craft)
