KEY POINTS
- House Speaker Mike Johnson was booed by the crowd during a speech at Columbia University in which he condemned ongoing student protests against the war in Gaza.
- The Columbia University campus was filled with student protests against the war that gained national attention amid reports of anti-Semitic speech targeting Jewish students.
- Johnson called on university president Nemat “Minoush” Shafiq to resign if she fails to restore order on campus, and said he would urge President Joe Biden to take executive action against demonstrators.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., struggled to get on the floor Wednesday, facing a chorus of booing crowds during a speech at Columbia University in which he condemned student protests ongoing against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
“Enjoy your freedom of speech,” Johnson said succinctly, interrupting his prepared remarks to wait for the sarcasm to die down.
The Columbia University campus has been frozen by controversy since student demonstrators set up a tent on April 17 to protest the war in Gaza.
The protests gained national attention amid reports of anti-Semitic speech targeting Jewish students and after Colombian President Nemat “Minoche” Shafik authorized New York police to sweep the tent camp on Thursday.
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that helped organize the protests, said any hate speech came not from protesters but from “controversial individuals who do not represent us.”
During Johnson's speech on Wednesday, he called on Shafiq to resign if she could not handle the protests.
Johnson added that he intended to urge President Joe Biden to take executive action against the protests if necessary: "If this is not brought under control quickly, if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, then the time has come for the National Guard. »
Biden has so far condemned both reported anti-Semitism and "those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians," he told reporters on Monday.
Johnson's speech Wednesday came hours after Biden formally signed into law a long-awaited foreign aid bill for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, which had been effectively shelved in the House for weeks due to political impasse.
The measure was largely restored by Johnson's decision to put the foreign aid plan to a vote in the House on Saturday, despite threats of ouster from hardline members of his party such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R -Ga. The House approved the foreign aid bill on Saturday and received formal approval from the Senate on Tuesday evening.
After more than a week of bipartisan cooperation with Democrats to pass the aid bill, Johnson's speech in Columbia appeared to be an attempt to reinforce his conservative intentions with his radical colleagues in the Republican Party.
The speaker was joined by Rep. Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and Rep. Mike Lawler, Republican of New York.
“My message to the students inside the camp is: Get back to class,” Johnson said. “Stop wasting your parents’ money.”