Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance ripped Democrats for allowing protesters to turn areas, such as college campuses, into “garbage dumps” Monday on Fox News, as pro-Palestine protesting at universities continue.
Vance appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” to discuss the ongoing protests across U.S. college campuses in support of the pro-Palestine movement. Fox host Jesse Watters asked Vance “at what point” President Joe Biden “call” universities, such as Columbia and Yale, to say “knock it off” as protests from students began last week. (RELATED: Jewish Journalism Student ‘Jabbed’ In Eye With Palestinian Flag Pole While Reporting On Protest)
“Well it should’ve happened yesterday, of course, Jesse,” Vance said. “This is the convergence of two factors that the left has been openly cultivating for years now. On one hand, you have well-educated, limousines, self-hating liberals who get very good educations but really they’re getting very good indoctrinations — they’re not getting an education in anything. And then on the flip side, you have the importation of millions of people, some of whom are vetted and some of whom hate this country.”
“Those two forces are joining in Columbia and in Yale and producing this incredible campus violence,” he continued. “Obviously, we condemn anti-Semitism, Jesse, but I don’t care what you are underlying ideology is. If you’re harassing fellow students, if you’re preventing people from getting to class, if you’re stabbing your fellow students in the eye with flags, you should go to prison.”
“I don’t know why Joe Biden and the Democrats can’t just utter the simple basic truth that if you violate the law, if you set up a tent city, if you turn our cities or campuses into garbage dumps for your political protest, you need to be forced to comply with the law. That’s what we did in the sixties and that’s what we need to do today or it’s gonna keep on getting weirder and weirder,” Vance concluded.
Protests at Columbia University began last week on April 17in support of the Palestine movement as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues. While New York Police Department (NYPD) officials were called to the campus the next day with reports of arrests being made, the protests persisted throughout the weekend with other campuses beginning their demonstrations.
As Columbia students reportedly set up tents on the school’s lawn, UC Berkley did the same Monday, with students sitting outside of Sproul Hall steps, according to Berkley Side. Tensions between Jewish students and the protesters have also reportedly increased, as a Jewish journalism student was allegedly “jabbed” in the eye with a Palestinian pole flag while reporting on the event Saturday.
By Sunday President Joe Biden condemned antisemitic protests on campus stating, “Blatant Antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”