It is welcome that John Kirby is, on behalf of the president, issuing a statement criticizing the dozens of Columbia protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall and barricaded the entrances to claim the building as theirs.
The President believes that forcibly taken over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach. That is not an example of peaceful protest. And, of course, as we you’ve rightly noted, hate speech and hate symbols also have no place in this country. A small percentage of of students shouldn’t be able to disrupt the academic experience. The legitimate study for the rest of the student body, students paying to go to school and want an education ought to be able to do that without disruption, and they ought to be able to do it and feel safe doing it. And they certainly deserve to be able to graduate and participate in a graduation ceremony. So it’s rare to see these these protesters taken over by force of a building on campus. And as I’ve just reiterate, that that is not does not comport with the idea of peaceful protest.
This feels suspiciously like a week ago, when the White House press office released a written statement attributed to Biden about Passover that hit all the right notes, but once Biden actually got in front of the cameras, speaking off the cuff, Biden offered a mush of moral equivalence: “I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I’ve set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians and their — how they’re being…” and then Biden was interrupted; he never finished his thought.
If Biden feels so strongly that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach, is it too much to ask that Biden step to the podium and say so on camera? Apparently so. The only event on President Biden’s schedule today is a “digital town hall campaign event” that occurred at 3 p.m.
We’re six months from Election Day. It’s Tuesday. Biden had no public events yesterday or Sunday. Biden’s lone public event on Saturday was the White House Correspondents Dinner. His lone event on Friday was his interview with Howard Stern.
He’s an 81-year-old man and he’s maintaining the schedule of a retiree.