President Joe Biden called on Thursday that “order must prevail” as pro-Palestinian protests roil college campuses across the country, emphasizing that violent protests are not protected by law.
Breaking days of silence on the issue since the arrests of students and other protesters at Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles and elsewhere, Biden emphasized that “peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to important issues” and that the US is not a “lawless country”.
“Violent protest is not protected – peaceful protest is,” the president said. “It is against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not peaceful protest.”
Biden also said that anti-Semitism, threats of violence against Jewish students, hate speech or violence of any kind have no place on any campus.
“Whether it’s anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans, it’s just wrong,” he said. “There is no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong, it’s un-American.”
“I understand that people have strong feelings and deep convictions,” he added. “In America, we respect and protect people’s right to express themselves, but that doesn’t mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without distraction, without hate and within the law.”
In response to a shouted question from a reporter asking whether the protests on college campuses have made him reconsider any policies on Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Biden responded: “No.”
The president also said “no” to a separate shouted question asking whether he thinks the National Guard should intervene in campus protests.
Biden has been criticized by pro-Palestinian protesters who argue he supports the genocide in Gaza, as he asserts that Israel has the right to defend itself – an accusation the White House has repeatedly denied. As protesters demand an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, Biden continued to declare his support for Israel while criticizing its handling of the war and the lives lost in Gaza in the months that followed. to the Hamas attack on October 7. in the country.
In his Thursday remarks, Biden also criticized “those rushing to score political points” at protests, saying “this is not a time for politics, it’s a time for clarity.”
Biden did not specify who he was referring to, but his remarks come as former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, seeks to blame Biden and Democrats for the violence that erupted during campus protests.
Trump has repeatedly condemned the protesters as being part of the “radical left” and criticized Biden for his lack of intervention or objection to campus protests as police moved to quell the demonstrations.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
