Rick Scott calls for resignations from Columbia, donors withhold funds as protests escalate

Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) called for the suspension of donations and the firing of Columbia University employees amid protests gaining momentum on college campuses across the country.

“If you are a donor to Columbia University, stop,” Scott said in an interview that aired Sunday on “The Cats Roundtable” radio show with hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby. “If you’re a board member, if you’re not going to hold your administration accountable, you should resign.”

Protests centered on Palestinian human rights and the dire humanitarian aid situation in Gaza have erupted on university campuses across the country, particularly in Colombia. The Columbia protest faced accusations of anti-Semitism, which protest leaders rejected.

“We are frustrated by media distractions focused on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us,” Columbia protest leaders wrote in a statement last week.

Columbia also banned a student protest leader who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live” from campus, a university spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Friday. Khymani James, the student, said in a recently resurfaced video earlier this year that people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

Scott also attacked his colleague, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.), saying that he said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the elected leader of the only democracy in the Middle East, should be expelled from the office”.

Last month, Schumer called for new elections in Israel and said Netanyahu had “lost his way.” He also said that [a]I am a lifelong supporter of Israel, it was clear to me: Netanyahu’s coalition no longer meets Israel’s needs after October 7.”

“The world has changed – radically – since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a vision of government that is stuck in the past,” Schumer continued.