‘Completely Out of Control’: Pennsylvania Governor Slams Pro-Palestinian Protests at Columbia, Urges School to Restore Order
CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) on Wednesday about the protests that continue to grip college campuses across the country and the widespread accusation that those protests have taken an anti-Semitic turn.
“So the president of Columbia University is getting a lot of criticism. Your fellow Democrat from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, the senator, has called on her to do her job or resign. What’s your take?” Tapper asked.
“Well, I think we need to restore some order on campuses, at Columbia, and across this country. Certainly, students and others have a right to peacefully protest in adherence with university policy and the laws of the city and the states they’re in,” Shapiro replied, adding:
I think what’s important is that we can’t allow peaceful protest about a disagreement on policy happening in the Middle East to be an excuse for anti-Semitism or Islamophobia on these campuses. We can’t allow it to be an excuse that puts certain students at risk, to be able to go to classes safely or to be able to worship safely.
And universities have a responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of their students, and to make sure that the rules of the university are being followed. What I see from afar at some universities, including Columbia, is a situation that is completely out of control, and it’s incumbent upon the university leadership to get it under control quickly for the benefit of the students and the people in the region.
“How is it out of control? I mean, there are lines for everybody. It’s so subjective. Everybody has their own view,” Tapper added, further explaining:
Somebody holds up a sign. I saw one at University of Texas earlier today that’s, said something about, Palestine and it’s a map of all of Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza, as if that is all Palestine. Does that cross a line? Some Israeli might say, you’re saying that Israel shouldn’t exist anymore? There are chants, ‘From the river to the sea,” that some people say are just, an expression about freedom. And some people say, no, that’s calling out. That’s calling for the elimination of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Where do you draw the line when it comes to what you consider to be out of control?
“You know, Jake, there may be some subjectivity to the speech,” Shapiro agreed, but added:
I think it’s clear when you’re engaging in anti-Semitic rhetoric, Islamophobic rhetoric, there should be no place for that. But even before you get to what’s on this sign or what is coming out in the speech, the act of gathering in the way that some of these students have at some of these universities violates university policy and may violate the rules of that particular city or that particular state that can’t be allowed in the name of free speech.
And I think several of these university leaders across the country just simply losing control of the situation. They have a responsibility to keep students safe. Students shouldn’t be blocked from going to campus just because they’re Jewish or learning in a classroom, as opposed to being forced online because they’re Jewish. It is simply unacceptable.
And you know what? We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this, if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about people who are African-American in our communities. Certainly not condoning that, Jake, by any stretch, but I think we have to be careful about setting any kind of double standard here on our campuses. We got to call it out for what it is, and these university leaders have to make sure there is order on their campuses.
Tapper replied by offering a recent experience he has had with the current climate, “So, you know, it’s the progressives that are making the arguments here. This isn’t the KKK, the far right, it’s progressives.”
“When I posted a picture on X or Twitter of a swastika that somebody had drawn on a sign at the synagogue where I was bar mitzvahed in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, outside Philly, there were progressives saying on social media, well, then the Israeli government shouldn’t act like Nazis. That’s where this is coming from. There’s certainly tons of anti-Semitism on the right, don’t get me wrong. And I’ve heard from them as well. But that’s where this antisemitism is coming. The people who are saying, ‘Hamas, we love you’ or, you know, ‘Set Tel Aviv on fire,’ or call, you know, praising October 7th, which they call the Al Aqsa flood. These are streets full of progressives,” Tapper concluded.
Shapiro replied, “And look, Jake, there are people with strongly held views and righteous views. Whether you and I agree with them or not is really irrelevant here. Who really fundamentally disagree with Israeli policy. They don’t like the direction that things are going in the Middle East. ”
Watch the full clip above via CNN.
