Republican and Democratic officials used cable news interviews Sunday morning to address the ongoing protests on college campuses against the war in Gaza.
Here are some of the latest remarks:
Mitch Landrieu, the national co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign and former New Orleans mayor, stressed that there’s “no place” for either antisemitism or Islamophobia on college campuses.
Landrieu told CNN’s Jake Tapper that President Joe Biden is focused on the “core principles” of what the US Constitution says about protected speech. “Everybody has a right to protest, but they have to protest peacefully,” he said.
Landrieu also responded to independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ warning that what’s unfolding at US colleges could be “Biden’s Vietnam,” saying Sanders’ remarks were an “exaggeration” and that these are different circumstances.
Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, now the University of Florida president, called for school officials nationwide to “step up and mind their own shops.”
The university’s spring commencement ceremonies have continued in person as other schools have grappled with canceling or modifying graduation events.
Sasse — whose appointment as president of the state’s flagship university was met with condemnation from students and faculty who opposed his conservative views and knocked his lack of relevant experience — said in an interview with Tapper that the university would affirm the right to free speech, but balance that with enforcing time, place and manner restrictions.
“You don’t get to take over the whole university. People don’t get to spit at cops. You don’t get to barricade yourselves in buildings. You don’t get to disrupt somebody else’s commencement,” he said.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said that while he respects the right to peaceful protest, the campus demonstrations are “too often not peaceful.”
Scott also said on NBC that Biden has not sufficiently condemned antisemitism and is “pandering” to his base with his response to protests.
Scott said federal funding for colleges and universities is a “privilege” to consider when administrators choose how to respond to unrest.
Sumber: www.cnn.com
