WASHINGTON — President Biden broke 10 days of silence about anti-Israel anarchy on college campuses Thursday, saying the US is not a “lawless country” and “order must prevail” while acknowledging the right to peaceful demonstrations — and rejecting calls to bring out the National Guard.
Biden, 81, spoke for three-and-a-half minutes in the White House Roosevelt Room after taking sustained criticism for his lack of public comments as chaos raged across the country.
“It is against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations, none of this is a peaceful protest,” the president said. “Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest, it is against the law.”
Biden answered “no” when asked if the protests had swayed his fundamental position in support of Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip to destroy the Hamas terror group and said “no” again when asked if he supported sending the Guard to unruly schools.
Biden, often dubbed “Genocide Joe” by protesters, had been conspicuously absent from the discourse amid nationwide mayhem this week, as students at Columbia University briefly seized the school’s Hamilton Hall before being cleared out by the NYPD Tuesday night, and as pro- and anti-Israel activists brawled at UCLA late Wednesday.
In his most recent remarks, on April 22, Biden sparked a backlash by appearing to try to take both sides the issue despite documented instances of antisemitism among Columbia protesters.
“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But, but — neither are we a lawless country. We are a civil society and order must prevail,” Biden began his remarks.
“Throughout our history we have often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse, free-thinking and freedom-loving nation. In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isn’t a moment for politics, it is a moment for clarity.”
Biden added: “Let me be clear… Violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is.”
Follow The Post’s coverage of the pro-terror protests at colleges across the US:
- Tear gas sprayed at UCLA encampment as cops face off with anti-Israel protesters wielding fire extinguishers
- Stanford submits ‘deeply disturbing’ photo of campus anti-Israel protester wearing Hamas headband to FBI
- Iranian college offers free tuition to US students expelled for participating in anti-Israel protests: ‘Our people’
- MAP: US colleges where students have been arrested over anti-Israel protests
- Not affiliated with school: 13
- Students at affiliated institutions: 6
- Undergrad students: 14
- Grad students: 9
- Columbia employees: 2
“Dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education,” he went on.
“There is the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. People have a right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without the fear of being attacked.”
The president then said: “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students.”
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest on anti-Israel protests on campuses across the US
He quickly added, “There is no place for hate speech, or violence of any kind, anti semitism, Islamophobia, discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American.”
The president has a long-held aversion to protests — including denouncing as “a–holes” anti-Vietnam War students who seized an academic building at Syracuse University, where he attended law school — but has tried to avoid antagonizing anti-Israel activists as polls show the conflict risking his re-election prospects in battleground states such as Michigan.