Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY4) joined House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and other Republican colleagues at Columbia University April 24 to demand that school President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik resign for failing to quickly dismantle encampments built by pro-Palestinian protesters and, in their view, for not doing enough to ensure that Jewish people on campus feel safe.
“Until Pres. Shafik resigns & honor is restored to this once great institution, it’s no longer worthy of financial or personal support,” D’Esposito wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
Johnson said at his appearance that he would urge President Joe Biden to take executive action against the protesters, including using the National Guard if necessary.
A group of Jewish Democratic House members separately visited the school to express outrage over antisemitic harassment of Jewish students on and around campus.
But there were several differences between Republicans like D’Esposito and the Democrats that have large implications for congressional, Senate and presidential elections.
The Democrats, for one, did not raise the possibility of bringing in the National Guard.
This is a very bad idea for several reasons. One is history.
Four people were fatally shot at Kent State University during the Vietnam War by National Guardsman trained for military operations but not policing.
The second is that the 35,000 members of the New York Police Department are well-trained in crowd control and responding to riots, something they are regularly called upon to do. The most recent instance before Columbia was at NYU, where the problem was handled peacefully.
As a former New York police detective, D’Esposito should know this.
Further proof of the city Police Department’s effectiveness came just days after the Republicans’ visit when officers in riot gear removed demonstrators who had seized Hamilton Hall, a Columbia building with a history of student takeovers. That cleared the encampment. No one was injured. And the protesters went quietly.
The third major difference between Democrats and Republicans was their response to a scene of actual violence – the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
And the Republicans’ continued support of the man who orchestrated the attack intended to overturn the 2020 presidential election – former President Donald Trump.
The disruption of the Columbia campus and threats to Jewish students amid an alarming rise in antisemitism is unacceptable behavior.
Students who committed crimes in the takeover of Hamilton Hall should be prosecuted. Those who violate college policy should be expelled or suspended.
But as serious as this wrongdoing is, it does not compare to inciting a mob that threatened the lives of then Vice President Mike Pence and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and everyone else in Congress on Jan. 6.
It does not compare to an attack in which 140 police officers were injured, five people died, and many suffered lasting injuries.
But in 2021, 139 Republican House members cast votes against certifying the results of the presidential election – just hours after the mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Johnson, who led the visit to Columbia, was the leader of the House Republicans’ support of Texas’ request to the Supreme Court to throw out election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in December 2020.
This would have disenfranchised more than 20 million voters and changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court tossed out the suit in a few sentences, saying Texas lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.
The Jan. 6 Committee documented that Trump sat in the White House during the attack on the Capitol for three hours and did nothing – despite the pleas of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to act.
We agree that Shakik responded too slowly to students who crossed the line from legitimate protest protected by the Constitution to an encampment that infringed on the rights of other students and was not protected.
We disagree that Shakik should resign because of her failure to act earlier, especially in response to demands from elected officials trying to score political points.
But if Republican House members want to demand Shakik’s resignation, they should explain why they did not make a similar call after Trump failed to uphold a hallmark of American democracy – the peaceful transfer of power – and led an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Why has there been no call for him to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, as Trump’s failure to act becomes even clearer?
Shakik may have been wrong to allow an encampment to be built at Columbia, but she did not call for a mob to descend on the U.S. Capitol to overturn an election and undermine democracy in America.
The hypocrisy here is breathtaking.
And, unlike protesters at Columbia, the threat of future violence posed by Trump continues.
Trump has also said if he doesn’t get elected, “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” He later said his “bloodbath” comments only applied to the U.S. auto industry.
But after leading an assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, calling those arrested “hostages” and making many other calls for violence on his behalf, it seems a safe assumption that Trump will say the 2024 election was rigged if he loses again. And call on his supporters to oppose the results.
Last week in Milwaukee, Trump again falsely claimed he won Wisconsin in 2020 and refused to say he would accept the results of the 2024 election there if he lost.
D’Esposito and every other Republican running for Congress should explain why someone running for president of the United States should be held to a lower standard than the president of Columbia University.
The Democratic lawmakers who visited Columbia were not as forceful as the Republicans, who left little room for the distinction between those targeting Jewish students and those peacefully protesting the Israel-Gaza war.
But they made more sense and have far more standing.
“Peaceful protest is a protected right,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) later said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Chanting ‘burn Tel Aviv to the ground’ and breaking into university buildings is not.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) called on Columbia to discipline harassers, restore civility on this campus and encourage peaceful, constructive, civil dialogue.
This is easier said than done when elected officials are attempting to score political points.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who joined the Republican congressmembers at Columbia, used the occasion to continue to make false claims against Hofstra University and its president, Susan Poser.
“As Nassau’s first Jewish county executive, I’m disgusted by what’s going on at Columbia, Yale University and at Hofstra University, where President Susan Poser is equivocating in her support for Israel,” Blakeman said in a Facebook post. “We denounced all forms of hate and anti-semitism.”
Blakeman’s reference to Poser, who is also Jewish, refers back to his bid to get her fired following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were brutally murdered and more than 240 hostages were taken.
What did Poser say that so offended Blakeman?
“The world woke up on Saturday morning to news of the horrific and brutal attack by Hamas on Israel and the unspeakable, organized violence and hostage-taking against men, women, and children,” Poser said on Monday, Oct. 9, two days after Hamas’ attack.
Poser’s response helped Hofstra avoid the divisive rhetoric and violent attacks seen at schools like Harvard, Columbia and Stanford following Hamas’ terrorist attack.
Further proof of Poser’s proper handling of the issue came last Thursday when some Hofstra students participated in a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest at the Hempstead campus as a smaller group of pro-Israeli students stood nearby.
Zainab Mozawalla, a pre-law student who is president of Hofstra Student Voices for Palestine, even accused Poser and Hofstra of suppressing the voices of pro-Palestinian protesters.
Blakeman, D’Esposito and Johnson have a right to comment on the Columbia protests. But they should not use it to play politics while ignoring the existential threat posed to American democracy by Trump.
