White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged several questions during a press briefing on Monday, regarding the responses of many universities in the U.S. as anti-Israel protests, which sometimes turn violent, continue to flare up.
Colleges from coast to coast, including many Ivy League schools like Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Penn, have seen dayslong protests on campuses, with students demanding their schools completely divest from Israel as the death toll in Gaza continues to increase.
One reporter on Monday asked Jean-Pierre whether President Biden or anyone else in the White House had spoken with leadership at Columbia University, and if the president was happy with how school administrators are handling the situation.
“The president has always been clear that while Americans have the right to peacefully protest…he stands squarely, squarely against any rhetoric, violent rhetoric, any hate, hate threats and physical intimidation and hate speech,” she said, adding there is no place for antisemitism on college campuses or anywhere else. “It is a painful moment, we get that. But it is a painful moment that Americans are dealing with, and free expression has to be done within the law. And, you know, we’re going to continue to be very clear about that.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on on January 03, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The press secretary did not answer the question about whether Biden was satisfied with how universities are handling the situation. And that was not the only question she dodged.
Jean-Pierre was asked if the White House thought it was fair that protesters at Columbia or other schools were being threatened with probation or other disciplinary actions, and whether students should leave a protest before a deadline being given by university personnel at Columbia.
To both questions, Jean-Pierre said she would not comment.
University of Texas police officers arrest a man at a pro-Palestinian protest at UT on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Jay Janner/American-Statesman)
“These are institutions. Some of them are private, some of them are public, and it is up to their leadership, university leadership and colleges, to make that decision,” she responded to the first question.
She nearly echoed her response to the second question.
“I’m just not going to comment on leadership at colleges and universities….that’s for them to decide,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been very clear.”
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An anti-Israel protester in Cambridge on Monday shouted slurs at the pro-Israel counter-protesters, calling them “pigs” and “Nazis.” (Kassy Dillon/Fox News Digital)
Other topics that were dodged included whether the White House was concerned about safety at graduations; the response of the Biden administration to the use of police force in some of the college protests; the Biden administration’s reaction to the repercussions of the protests and how they have impacted students on campuses in terms of the University of Southern California canceling graduation and George Washington University moving exams; and if the White House supported having antisemitism monitors on campus.
In nearly every response, Jean-Pierre stuck to the message that Biden is in favor of peaceful protests and condemns antisemitism and any form of hate.
But this is nothing new.
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President Biden said he expects Iran to attack Israel and tensions continue to flare between to the two nations. (Photographer: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
On Sunday, the White House remained silent on if the administration plans to bar student protesters from eligibility for student loan forgiveness programs. One thing Biden campaigned on in 2020 was forgiving student loan debt, pledging to cancel at least $10,000 per borrower back in 2020.
While Biden denounced the protests, he came under criticism last week for also condemning those “who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden told reporters this month.
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Critics have compared it to Trump’s remarks in 2017, following a two-day riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, when White nationalists descended on the city. Trump said at the time that the violence had “no place in America,” while adding there was “blame on both sides” and “very fine people, on both sides.”
Emma Colton of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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