President Joe Biden bets on the middle with campus protests

President Biden bets on the middle.

Biden, a centrist Democrat who defeated several other progressive rivals in the 2020 primaries, this week criticized the college campus protests that have engulfed the country, saying they would not change his policies on Israel’s war in Gaza and would not be protected when they became violent. .

The words were measured. Biden said people have the right to protest and the president signaled his dissatisfaction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But it was also a clear sign that Biden believes the middle of the country is behind his approach to the protests, even as Republicans go on the attack, calling him impotent and saying he has done too little to quell divisive protests.

Whether it works is another question.

The national malaise brought back echoes of 1968, when the incumbent Democratic vice president, Hubert Humphrey, was defeated by a law-and-order Republican amid campus clashes over the war.

Progressives angered by US military support for Israel amid the carnage in Gaza are certainly unhappy with Biden – perhaps particularly over his declaration that the protests will not change his policies.

But Democrats, including progressives, overwhelmingly offered support for Biden’s approach following his comments Thursday.

“He is absolutely right that we do not want violent protests and we will absolutely not tolerate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia or any form of intolerance,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted against the military . support for Israel, he told CNN.

At the same time, Sanders issued a warning to Biden, alluding to 1968 and saying that the protests could be Biden’s Vietnam War.

Sanders suggested that Biden change course and rethink his policy in the Middle East.

“I sincerely hope that, certainly from a political standpoint, from a moral standpoint, that the president stops giving Netanyahu a blank check, and I hope that they understand that from a political standpoint, that didn’t happen. it was useful. Quite the opposite,” said the senator.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), while not mentioning the president’s comments, said on social platform“All of our leaders must calm down, support non-violent protesters and free speech, and condemn violence and hatred of all types.”

Some progressives have taken another approach.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Thursday shared a post from Center for American Progress President Patrick Gaspard, who said in X: “I invaded in peaceful protest. I closed government offices out of civil disobedience. I made the powerful uncomfortable in their routines, while at the same time dissenting in peaceful but committed disorder. These are the American traditions of Thomas Paine, David Thoreau, Rosa Parks.”

The stakes for Biden are high ahead of an election against former President Donald Trump that is expected to be extremely close.

It is far from clear that Biden can count on the support of progressives and younger voters, even in an election against Trump.

Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official, said Biden’s approach to the protests has been to understand that while he may lose some votes with his comments, he has the potential to gain more with what he said.

“Elections are a numbers game, so in scenarios like this, he could lose two voters in one place and gain three in another,” Zapien said.

Zapien, echoing other Democrats, also said it was “premature to speculate about the impact this will have on the November election.”

Biden, for much of his presidency, has focused on more moderate voters, who some argue may be turned off by protests in general.

“When it looks like the country is in chaos visually, it’s bad for Biden. It turns out that chaos is at the epicenter of the image of woke elitism, which is a huge turnoff for a large portion of Americans,” said a former Biden 2020 campaign staffer.

Trump, for his part, is trying to cast Biden as part of the woke mob, or too weak to fight it. In this context, Biden’s remarks are a throwback to the Trump campaign and Republicans.

The Biden-Trump battle will likely come down to seven swing states, where a slice of the electorate could make a difference.

Polls this week from Emerson College Polling/The Hill show Trump leading Biden by single digits in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Biden, who has campaigned in every swing state since March, made another trip this week to North Carolina and next week plans to travel to Wisconsin.

Strategists say the danger for Biden is that voters will blame him for the chaos in the country that appears reflected in the campus protests.

“Perhaps the biggest challenge for the current president is the persistent sense of disorder – at the border, with inflation, crime, geopolitically – and now on college campuses, which is stirring up voter discontent,” said Bruce Mehlman, a former official of President George W. . Bush.

GOP strategist Doug Heye argued that Biden, while he should have spoken out sooner, may even appeal to many college students who also feel the protests have gone too far.

“I don’t think being clear, consistent and early, which it obviously wasn’t, risks alienating young voters. Chapel Hill is a campus with about 24,000 students,” he said, referring to the University of North Carolina, where protests also took place this week.

“We are talking about about 100 who were there. So, a few 100 people protesting for Palestine, obviously there were some counter-protesters… and then we have the overwhelming majority of students on campus who want to go to classes, take exams, go to sporting events and meet some students.” , said Heye.

Some Democrats have defended Biden’s approach as a way to distinguish himself from Trump, who Biden argues would plunge the country back into chaos.

“Biden struck the perfect tone with his comments. Whatever feelings Americans may have about the Israel-Gaza conflict, there is a way to express those views and a way that pushes boundaries,” said Jim Kessler, vice president of policy at the left-leaning think tank Third Way. .

“There is only one person running for president who tolerated and encouraged protesters to break windows, attack police, and occupy a building: Donald Trump, on January 6.”