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Prime Democrats are pouncing on Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after he gave an impassioned speech condemning the anti-Israel protests on Columbia College’s campus.
“Why would I ever hearken to a person that thinks he ought to have extra say over my physique than I do? NEXT,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on X beneath a photograph of Johnson at Columbia.
She responded to a report about college students heckling Johnson, “Good, he’s attempting to take all their reproductive rights away.”
Johnson and several other New York Home Republicans – Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Anthony D’Esposito, and Mike Lawler – visited with Jewish college students on the Manhattan Ivy League campus on Thursday after days of demonstrations left them fearing for their very own security.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MOVES TO HYBRID LEARNING ON MAIN CAMPUS AMID ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS
Home Speaker Mike Johnson is beneath hearth from Democrats for denouncing anti-Israel protests at Columbia College’s campus. (Getty Pictures)
The speaker denounced the “mob” of pro-ceasefire activists who arrange an encampment on the Columbia campus in addition to the school and employees aiding them. These protesters loudly booed Johnson’s remarks on Thursday, to which at one level he shot again, “Take pleasure in your free speech.”
New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul accused Johnson of politicizing the demonstrations in feedback to reporters in Albany, in accordance to Politico.
“A speaker definitely worth the title ought to actually be attempting to heal individuals and never divide them, so I don’t assume it provides to something,” Hochul stated. “It appears to me there’s much more duties and crises to be handled in Washington…I’d encourage the speaker to return and maybe take up the migrant invoice, the invoice to take care of closing the borders, so we are able to take care of the actual disaster that New York has.”
COLUMBIA SETS DEADLINE FOR AGREEMENT WITH PROTESTERS, THREATENS ‘ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS’ FOR CLEARING PROTESTERS
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul informed Home Speaker Mike Johnson to “return” to Washington. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM by way of Getty Pictures)
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., whose daughter was arrested on the Columbia encampment earlier this week, went a step additional and stated Johnson was placing individuals’s lives in peril.
“It’s not shocking that he would exit to Columbia College and fire up actually extra anger and hate and endanger the lives of younger people who find themselves on the encampment at Columbia College,” she informed MSNBC.
The speaker’s workplace informed Fox Information Digital in response to the assaults, “Speaker Johnson spoke to college students at Columbia College as a result of Governor Hochul and different officers in New York have fully failed of their obligation to guard Jewish college students and fight the rise of antisemitism of their social gathering. We want it hadn’t been needed.”
OMAR’S DAUGHTER DECRIES ‘HYPOCRISY,’ SAYS ANTI-ISRAEL STUDENTS ARE ‘100% TARGETED’ AFTER SUSPENSION AND ARREST
Anti-Israel agitators assemble an encampment on Columbia College’s campus in New York Metropolis on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
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His look at Columbia got here as officers on either side of the aisle condemned the demonstrations, which have pressured the college to partially transfer lessons on-line. Related protests have cropped up at faculties throughout the nation, together with at Yale College, the place a Jewish pupil stated they have been hit within the eye with a flag pole throughout an anti-Israel occasion.
“The school campus was once the place for respectful debate, for the variations of opinion and the free market of concepts to be mentioned. That’s not what is going on right here,” Johnson informed the activists on Thursday.
“You are intimidating and shouting down individuals you disagree with. You can’t censor and silence viewpoints you disagree with. That’s not American. You don’t perceive what it means to respect the First Modification.”
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox Information Digital main protection of the Home of Representatives. Earlier digital bylines seen at Each day Mail and CBS Information.
Observe on Twitter at @liz_elkind and ship tricks to [email protected]
Dems assault Johnson over impassioned Columbia speech condemning anti-Israel pupil activists
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