These protests are a ‘natural result’ of Democratic social justice issues: Mollie Hemingway

America is on fire. That’s not media hyperbole. More than 2000 anti Israel protesters arrested on college campuses. Terrible violence, breaking out, buildings being taken over. Police clashing with demonstrators who are harassing and intimidating Jewish students. For two weeks I’ve been asking where is President Biden? Why isn’t he addressing this huge national crisis on television? I cannot fathom why he is not speaking out when the White House says, oh, he’s denounced all this. No, these are statements coming from a deputy press secretary the next morning, under pressure from the media and his own party, in an unscheduled event. And at the last minute, the president finally found the words destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Vandalism, Trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. That took place after Donald Trump addressed the protests in a Fox interview, after a full day in court and at a Wisconsin rally to every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately, Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses. Biden should speak out. He should speak out. He should say something because nobody knows where he is. Bottom line, the campus clashes is are full, fueling a sense that these are bastions of lawlessness. I’m Howard Kurtz and this is Media Buzz at Columbia, anti Israel. Protesters seized control of Hamilton Hall and refused to budget until the school’s president finally, belatedly, and much too late, called in the NYPD to evict them. Exactly 56 years after students occupied the same building in 1968 at UCLA, counter demonstrators clashed with pro Hamas protesters. Both sides, armed with weapons and police, eventually broke up the illegal encampment and made arrests in a pre dawn raid. And there have been arrests elsewhere, everywhere from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to Dartmouth to the University of Utah. Often aided by weak college leaders and abetted by the lure of television cameras and the coverage and commentary have cut across partisan lines. This is a situation where the protest movement has sided with an enemy, has sided with a terrorist organization. They want the destruction of the state of Israel. This is people talking about genocide screaming at them as they try to go to their English class on campus. I’m on the January 6th. Smash the window, right. That was a war crime, but they do it here and it’s like well, do you want another pizza? It’s disruption amongst on American campuses and crime. It feeds into the broader narrative of America being out of control. Joining us now to analyze the coverage Molly Hemingway, Editor in Chief of The Federalist and a Fox News contributor and Tim Hogan, Democratic strategist who has worked for Amy Klobuchar. Molly, how could Joe Biden have stayed silent for two weeks except for a terse answer to a producer shouted question as the violence escalated, as the arrests escalated, as this became by far the biggest story in television news and elsewhere. Yeah, he finally said something after weeks of of this going on on campuses nationwide. But I think the problem is that this is really the natural result of something that has taken root in the Democrat Party. You remember right after 911, when President Obama’s pastor got in trouble for talking about the chickens coming home to roost, Jeremiah Wright was talking about support for Palestinians in that moment. You know, four years ago, we saw how Nancy Pelosi LED her Democrats in Congress to kneel for the social justice issues that have really taken over the Democrat Party. And so it’s very difficult for President Biden. He knows these things are very unpopular, but he also knows that there’s there, that they are present in his party to the point that you have members of Congress that are supporting these protests. Well, he is largely taking some hits, Tim, for mostly being on the side of Israel and the way he’s prosecuted the war. But what was so difficult about saying these words. I mean can Biden criticizing anti-Semitism without immediately following it with Islamophobia discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans. I mean those are bad things too And he has I mean look on April 21st he put out a statement saying put out a state then OK condemned anti. I’m not buying the put out a statement. He answered the question of producer and he spoke and the White House has gone back and forth. I’m sorry I’m not buying the put out a statement thing. If you want to have effect as president United States, you get in front of a camera, which you can do, which he has, which he did. But I think the point is Joe Biden’s position on this is the mainstream position is not the loud position. It is that dissent is a part of democracy, but disorder is not that peaceful protest is OK but violent protest is not. And that’s not the loudest voice at this moment, and that is unfortunate. But he is leading in this moment. And I think it is a contrast to what we’ve seen from previous commanders in chief. I don’t think Donald Trump is a king of de escalation of protests here. Well, who who sow chaos. And that’s what the Republican Party is doing at some of these I’m I’m in favor of free speech and I’m in favor of peaceful protest. But that’s not mostly what we’re seeing. I’m a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, so I know this turf very well. Molly, how does the school’s president, Manish, excuse me, manush Shafiq, allow this minority, after initial round of arrest couple weeks ago to set up an even bigger tent encampment? And refused threatened suspensions but refused to call in the NYPD until they had taken over that building because Columbia University has spent decades building up this ideology within their own institution. And I do want to point out here too when we look a few years ago when president Trump said that there were good people who did not believe in tearing down statues. He was destroyed by corporate media and other Democrats who were so upset that he that he said that. And they they didn’t like, you know even though he said it immediately within hours of a of a horrible protest breaking out in Virginia. He they they demanded that he say some things a certain way and over and over and over over again. And here you have the media just sort of being like, oh, it’s no big deal that President Biden hasn’t said anything here. But again, these institutions have been taken over by this social justice ideology. That’s what these children or these students, they’re not children are learning and that’s what they have been learning for a long time. And that’s why when we talk about these protests, we do have to talk about the lies that are at the root of these protests. Whether they’re the lies that were told about during the BLM riots, about what America is and what it means to be American, or whether they’re the lies about the nature of the. Well, in fairness, I think it’s some, but not certainly not all, have pointed out that the president was late to the game here and there must have been some debate within the White House. But here’s the thing. You also have the localization of these national stories. And in other words, originally it was just Columbia and NYU and then it spread. That means huge headlines on TV coverage in each state, in each city, in each county where this is taking place. Has that created a sense that the country is out of control, especially with the president’s long delay in forcefully denouncing it? To some degree, yes. Right. If you send cameras to a protest, that is going to but get more coverage. And that’s a little bit of what’s happening. And I also think on the Republican side, you do see members of Congress sensing some opportunity here. Like the president said, he doesn’t want to score political points. We’ve got Mike Johnson, who’d rather play head of campus security at Columbia than be speaker of the House so he can avoid being tortured by Marjorie Taylor Greene for a day. So they’re now going to what is the problem And Mike Johnson went to Columbia was heckled as he knew he would be to side with Jewish students. What’s your problem with that Maybe not President Biden it’s it’s not that he’s wrong for siding with Jewish students and and Joe Biden has condemned the anti-Semitism as well. I’m saying there’s a political calculation for Mike Johnson to go there to say I got to get away from all of the problems that I have in my own caucus. Maybe if I go to Columbia University I can rally Republicans around me and avoid all the political. And I do think a lot of Americans wish they would have taken a stronger stand against the anti Americanism of the riots up four years ago. And they do sense that this is the natural progression of those BLM riots and other problems that were going on in the country and they wish they’d done more. You know Colin Kaepernick got a multi $1,000,000 contract when he kneeled for the national anthem and they see that things have spiraled out of control and they are now taking a much stronger stance, one that they should have taken years ago. Well let me follow up with this Molly, Is there a double standard when it comes to taking quick action to protect Jewish students? And we’re going to have some examples coming up. Can you imagine this kind of paralysis if black students were being jeopardized? If gay students were being jeopardized and all this hand wringing about, well, what’s the definition of anti-Semitism? It’s really not that complicated. Well, we have actually seen in previous years campuses allow much hate against certain students while dealing with other protected classes. It is also true that what we’ve seen against some of these Jewish students is absolutely horrible. And even just seeing some of these images of how Jewish students have had to fight to just be in public places on campus, it’s something that you really thought was more akin to other countries and that we wouldn’t experience. What do you mean by protected classes? Well, they’re like in previous years, for instance, during the BLM riots, you saw a lot of racism and hatred toward non protected classes. Against protected classes. OK, Tim, what has this done to the reputation of these elite institutions? That I mean Molly may disagree with this, but once widely respected and now we’re often seen as paragons of cowardice. Yeah, I mean they’re in trouble right now. To Molly’s point, there needs to be a clear condemnation of anti-Semitism that’s happening on campus. And you are saying plus action and you know it’s clearing encampments, it’s saying that breaking into a building and holding it is not a form of peaceful protest. It’s not something that’s protected that students have to feel safe when they’re on campus and able to go to class and utilize the facilities and learn. So it is it is a moment for for for those leaders to step up and make their voices clear. Yeah, except so many of them have gotten tongue tied during this. Well, well, you know, we got to be fair to everybody and it’s not really clear and peaceful protest and I’m all for peaceful protests. What we’re not seeing here, there’s a lot of peaceful protests. When you take over a large chunk of the campus, whether it’s Columbia University or not, you’re breaking the rules and you’re breaking the law. But also whether it’s peaceful or not, Again, the actual underlying issues need to be dealt with as well. A lot of what’s happened on these campuses is teaching falsehoods again, about Israel, but also about America. And we really need to get at the root of that. And that’s why I was bringing up Nancy Pelosi, kneeling, leading a people to kneel in the nation’s capital. That showed, you know she was immediately responsive to the BLM riots. At that time. There has been not that same clarity but some. You can’t draw a connection between those two things. I mean you can’t. I I I don’t I don’t know how that causes. Of course it’s the natural result, I will say. So some right winger see an opportunity to to leverage an attack that they have for a long time against institutions of higher learning. That is a little bit of what I’m worried about. Absolutely is that that Americans have been very upset at how institutions have taught hatred of America. I have thought it’s so interesting that in these protests you have the pro Gaza, pro Hamas side and then you have a bunch of students saying USAUSA like it is very anti American what’s going on And it is the natural result of what we’ve seen on campuses. There are peaceful protesters on these college campuses who are concerned with the humanitarian situation in Palestine. That is that is fine. That’s why I’m concerned that’s happening with the media. That is what’s concerned. I’m concerned about the humanitarian crisis but I don’t think it is right. I think it is terrible and I think police need to be called and I think the tide is turned on that when these kind of tactics are used. And by the way some faculty members joining the protest which tells you where some of the students are getting these views. Let me get a break when we come back how the campus protests humiliated some students while others humiliated themselves and a couple of Columbia students are on deck.