Democrats set aside concerns that campus protests will hurt Biden

Democrats are brushing aside concerns that protests on college campuses opposing the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spell trouble for President Biden in November.

Biden and his White House aides have mostly chosen to keep their distance when it comes to assessing escalating tensions on campuses across the country, but they have invoked the anti-Semitic rhetoric that has plagued some of the demonstrations.

Democrats say the protesters, made up of the young, progressive voting bloc Biden needs to win a second term, represent a small but vocal minority. They say Biden should continue not to get involved despite the group being part of the party coalition, arguing he would risk alienating even more voters by trying to appeal to protesters.

Others say his “quiet diplomacy” on the issue could backfire.

“I think where President Biden is right now, currently, is in fact where the majority of the American people are,” said Symone Sanders-Townsend, who served as Biden’s press secretary in the 2020 campaign and as a spokeswoman for the vice president. President Harris in the first year. from the administration, she said last week on MSNBC.

“The problem is that silent diplomacy does not correspond to what we are seeing in terms of unrest in the streets. And one could argue that the campaign should put the president in situations and scenarios where he could perhaps speak to a broader audience about this issue specifically,” Sanders continued.

“If you don’t do the work to meet them where they are and talk to them about what you’re doing and also listen to them, you can’t expect them to understand,” she added.

Growing outrage over the war in Gaza has been a recurring issue for Biden and his team, especially at the polls, where thousands of voters voted in protest against Biden in the Democratic primaries. He has also met with his own protesters at fundraisers and other White House events across the country since October.

The problems Biden faces with young voters in 2024 are already apparent. A CNN Poll published on Sunday, he trailed former President Trump by 11 points among voters ages 18 to 34. More broadly, Emerson College/The Hill polls showed Trump leading Biden in seven key states.

Biden, as he has done during the conflict that broke out last October between Israel and Hamas, has treaded cautiously around protests on university campuses, in which students demand that their universities divest of endowments that have links to Israel.

When demonstrations on the Columbia University campus erupted earlier this month, the White House condemned the bubbling anti-Semitism. Biden added last week that he also condemns “those who don’t understand what’s happening to the Palestinians” when asked about the campus protests, trying to offer a balanced response.

The White House also condemned the rhetoric used by the student leader of the Columbia protests, who said in January that “Zionists do not deserve to live.” Meanwhile, Republicans called on Biden to bring in the National Guard to deal with the campus protests, a move the White House said was not necessary. The government maintains that handling the situation should be left to the governors.

When protesters took over a building on the Columbia campus on Tuesday, the White House called the move a wrong approach and condemned the protesters for disrupting the academic experience of other students.

Despite the escalation of university demonstrations, which only increased as the week went on, the White House is maintaining this message.

One reason Democrats say they’re not too concerned about the protests hurting Biden is simply who he’s running against.

“I still feel comfortable because at the end of the day, as the president said, he’s an older man, but he’s running against a 6-year-old, and I think that makes a difference,” said former congressman Joe Crowley (DN.Y.), referring to a line from Biden’s speech at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner when he criticized former President Trump.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), an ardent supporter of Israel, argued the same point in the social platformposting: “In 2024, this brings tremendous responsibility: turn your back on Biden and you will embrace Trump,” in response to an article about Arab Americans in Michigan angry at Biden.

Dearborn, Michigan, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud fight back at Xsuggesting that Fetterman not ignore the concerns.

“Senator, some advice: take your message to the candidates, not the communities whose families are being massacred. Arab Americans will not be at the polls in November – Biden and Trump will be,” he said.

While this contingent of voters is unlikely to vote for Trump, whose policies have done few favors for Arab or Muslim Americans, the problem for Biden will be how many of them will be left out of the election.

Crowley avoided comparing today’s protests to those of 1968, saying that unlike Vietnam War-era protests, Biden is unlikely to have to call on the National Guard – as occurred in Kent State, Ohio – and in Instead, it will continue to leave it to local authorities. law enforcement and governments to deal with.

“It’s been ugly, but it hasn’t necessarily resulted in outright violence,” the former House Democratic Caucus chairman said.

The building that protesters in Columbia occupied on Tuesday was occupied at a civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest in 1968. However, clashes between protesters and police on college campuses have raised concerns among Senate Democrats, who are bracing for chaos during the Democrats’ presidential nominating convention in August, which they fear could be reminiscent of the chaotic 1968 convention in Chicago.

The White House’s rhetoric on the college campus protests is more nuanced than Biden’s response to other anti-war demonstrations. When he has been confronted and interrupted by protesters during remarks or rallies, the president has responded with empathy toward Palestinians and, at times, interacted with them.

During the recent university protests, however, the president and his administration firmly stated that it is up to institutions to manage the situation, while also denouncing the violent and hateful rhetoric that has emerged.

Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist, described Biden as having “dual goals”: ​​promoting the right to protest while ensuring that Jewish students feel safe on campus.

“The position that they tried to defend is a position where they obviously support the right to protest, but they also want Jews to feel safe on campus. And these two things should not be in opposition to each other. I think they were very clear about both,” he said.

John LaBombard, former communications director for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), said the White House’s instinct to first condemn anti-Semitism during these protests is the right one because the hate-fueled rhetoric emerging from the demonstrations “ It’s not where the vast majority of Americans are.

“I think what comes out of these protests on college campuses is generally out of step with most Americans,” he said. “So I don’t think the president needs to go out of his way to communicate what he has already communicated, which is that he shares deep concerns about the situation facing Palestinians right now, but that he has continued to support Israel.”