GOP maintains pressure on Biden post-campus protest criticism

President Joe Biden put to rest speculation Thursday over how strongly he would come down on a wave of disruptive protests engulfing college campuses.

After a week of silence, he called for order to be restored as pro-Palestinian demonstrators force the cancellation of classes and graduation ceremonies over the war in Gaza.

But the Republican response, ranging from measured to overtly partisan, reflected how the president will be unable to escape the disorder plaguing Democrats, who oppose the civilian deaths in Gaza but want to distance themselves from extreme elements of the party base.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the No. 3 Republican in the House, said the president “failed to meet the moment,” while Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) mocked Biden’s mention of Islamophobia in a speech condemning antisemitism.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), running to be the next GOP leader in the Senate, welcomed Biden’s address but said it had come too late.

Two days earlier, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Senate’s top Democrat, came out against what he called “lawlessness” on college campuses.

“He waited an awful long time to do it because it’s gotten really out of hand,” Thune said of Biden.

“The country needs to hear from our leaders, qnd obviously, the president’s voice in this matters,” he told the Washington Examiner. “So, I’m glad he’s spoken up, and hopefully, he’ll continue to get more forceful with respect to what’s happening out there.”

Republicans, seeking to use the protests as a political wedge for Democrats, have proposed a series of responses to the encampments that have cropped up on college campuses.

Hawley is among those joining Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in calling for the National Guard to clear them out, a notion Biden rejected Thursday.

But the one that has attracted some interest from Democrats is the end of federal funding for universities that cannot get the protests under control. Administrators at elite colleges such as Columbia sent in police in the past week but have been reluctant to do so.

“I mean, these college campuses need to feel the heat,” Thune said. “They get a lot of federal money.”

The GOP scrutiny, which comes months before the 2024 elections, has forced many Democrats to the right on Gaza. Some House lawmakers held their noses in voting for an antisemitism bill on Tuesday despite reservations that its language would chill free speech.

Democrats have widely condemned the harassment of Jews on college campuses. Even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of the most outspoken Israel critics, said Biden was “exactly right” to speak out against violence and antisemitism.

But party leaders are grappling with how to show support for Palestinians, thousands of whom have died in Israel’s war against Hamas, without allowing Republicans to define them as extremists.

Sanders, appearing on CNN Thursday, said student protesters are “there for the right reasons,” but Hawley equated them with those burning Israeli flags and “shouting Nazi slogans.”

“These people are pro-terrorist, they want to kill Jews,” he told the Washington Examiner. Biden “should just say it.”

“That’s what leadership would be, but he won’t,” Hawley added. “It’s all politics. It’s because he thinks he needs these people’s votes, which says a lot.”

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The antisemitism bill, which the Senate could soon take up as well, is just one action Republicans have taken since the protests erupted. Johnson traveled to Columbia University, the epicenter of the protests, last week and has since announced a House-wide investigation into the campus demonstrations.

He has repeatedly called on Biden to speak with “moral clarity” on the subject.