House Speaker Mike Johnson told Columbia University president Minouche Shafik to step down Wednesday if she did not crack down on Jew-hating demonstrators, while a fellow GOP lawmaker said Shafik had “lost control of this campus.”
Johnson (R-La.) told radio host Hugh Hewitt in the morning that Shafik had been “shown to be a very weak, inept leader” who “cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students.”
“They’re expected to run for their lives and stay home from class? It’s just, it’s maddening,” he said.
“What we’re seeing on these college campuses across the country is disgusting and unacceptable. And we have to, every leader in this country, every political official, every citizen of good conscience, has to speak out and say that this is not who we are in America.”
That afternoon, Johnson told reporters after meeting with Shafik at the Morningside Heights campus that he wanted President Biden to consider calling in the National Guard to “bring order to these campuses.”
“My intention is to call President Biden after we leave here and share with him what we have seen with our own two eyes and demand that he take action,” Johnson said.”If this is not contained quickly, and if this — these threats and intimidation — are not stopped there is an appropriate time for the National Guard.”
“I have a message for President Shafik, and a message for you all too: The inmates are running the asylum,” added House Education and Workforce committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), whose panel is investigating the school and others amid a rise in antisemitism.
“Take back control of this once-great institution. You took action last week, it’s time to act again,” Foxx added. “If not, the committee will pursue every possible avenue to create a safe learning environment for Jewish students.”
The House speaker had told Hewitt earlier Wednesday that Congress should move to pull federal funds from universities that have let anti-Israel demonstrators run riot on campus.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul accused Johnson of “politicizing” the protests and “adding to the division” by visiting with an “entourage” of Empire State House Republicans — even insisting that the antisemitic demonstrations were not “a real crisis.”
“It seems to me there’s a lot more responsibilities and crises to be dealt with in Washington, I’d encourage the speaker to go back and perhaps take up the migrant bill, the bill to deal with closing the border, so we can deal with a real crisis that New York has,” Hochul told reporters during a Wednesday press conference.
“I went there privately. I did not bring press with me,” Hochul boasted of her visit to Columbia earlier this week. “I wanted to have a substantive conversation about public safety with [Shafik], with campus security, with the NYPD.”
“Speaker Johnson is going to speak to students at Columbia University because Gov. Hochul and other officials in New York have completely failed in their duty to protect Jewish students and combat the rise of antisemitism in their party,” a spokesman for the Republican’s office fired back to The Post. “We wish it weren’t necessary.”
Congress is out of session this week after passing a major $95.3 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific and Israel, more than six months after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 33 Americans.
“We need to revoke these student visas for these violent protesters,” Johnson told Hewitt elsewhere in his interview. “You don’t have a right to be here and to do this. But Jewish students have a right to be able to peacefully attend classes.
Antisemitism controversy at Columbia University: Key events
- More than 280 anti-Israel demonstrators were cuffed at Columbia and the City of New York campuses overnight in a “massive” NYPD operation.
- One hundred and nine people were nabbed at the Ivy League campus after cops responded to Columbia’s request to help oust a destructive mob that had illegally taken over the Hamilton Hall academic building late Tuesday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams and police said.
- Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.
- Columbia’s embattled president Minouche Shafik, who has faced mounting calls to resign for not cracking down sooner, issued a statement Wednesday saying the on-campus violence had “pushed the university to the brink.”
- Columbia University president Minouche Shafik was accused of “gross negligence” while testifying before Congress. Shafik refused to say if the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic.
- More than 100 Columbia professors signed a letter defending students who support the “military action” by Hamas.
“They’re trying to get an education, and this is just madness. And you know, I’ve seen some of these man-on-the-street interviews with some of these kids who are protesting.”
Ironically, the Louisiana Republican also pointed out, it’s the protesters who need the roughly $89,500-per-year education.
“Hugh, you and I both know, the vast majority of them have no idea what they’re talking about. They don’t know the facts,” he noted. “Some of them are denying that October 7th even happened. I mean, it just, it’s ridiculous.”
Every New York House Republican lawmaker, led by conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik, demanded Shafik’s immediate resignation in a letter on Monday, saying it was time for Columbia “to turn the page on this shameful chapter.”
“We, the undersigned members, urge you to step down immediately so that someone who will take action against this mob can step up to meet the moment this crisis demands,” Stefanik and nine other New York GOP members wrote.
The letter came five days after Shafik’s disastrous April 17 testimony to Congress about her handling of antisemitism on campus — during which she said that statements calling for the eradication of Israel and violence against Jews were “hurtful” but did not clarify whether they violated school policies.
A prominent Columbia University rabbi, Elie Buechler, warned Jewish students Sunday to remain at home due to the “extreme antisemitism” of protesters who have taken over campus.
Anti-Israel demonstrators have restored dozens of tents at the Morningside Heights school despite the NYPD clearing more than 100 protesters from the illegal encampment last week.
Now more than 200 demonstrators at the self-described “People’s University for Palestine” have continued their demands for Columbia to divest from Israel, while chanting antisemitic slurs and harassing and intimidating Jewish students.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the pro-terror protests at colleges across the US:
- Tear gas sprayed at UCLA encampment as cops face off with anti-Israel protesters wielding fire extinguishers
- Stanford submits ‘deeply disturbing’ photo of campus anti-Israel protester wearing Hamas headband to FBI
- Iranian college offers free tuition to US students expelled for participating in anti-Israel protests: ‘Our people’
- MAP: US colleges where students have been arrested over anti-Israel protests
Video footage and witnesses have revealed protesters declaring “We are Hamas” and “We don’t want no Zionists here” — with one viral clip showing a young woman holding up a sign with an arrow pointing to an Israeli flag-waving student behind her as “Al-Qas[s]am’s Next Targets,” the name of Hamas’ military brigade.
Shafik begged Columbia undergrads to go home on Monday — and all courses have since been moved to hybrid learning options — with the president asking for a “reset” to “address security concerns.”
Asked by Hewitt whether anti-Israel protests were gripping universities in the House speaker’s home state of Louisiana, Johnson replied bluntly, “No. I don’t believe we’d tolerate that.”
“And if that happened at my alma mater, which is LSU, I’d be down there myself to stop it. I mean, this is outrageous,” Johnson said. “We have Jewish students who have actually been physically assaulted.”
The White House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have all condemned any antisemitic harassment or intimidation at Columbia — but none have asked Shafik to resign.
Johnson also criticized the lack of “strong leadership” in “the White House or even some Democrats in Congress” for allowing the protests to spread.
On Wednesday, plans for similar protests to take place at Princeton University were reported by National Review. Over the weekend, a Yale University student journalist was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag during another demonstration.
“The White House is caving to the antisemitic — I call it the pro-Hamas wing of the party now. They’ve backpedaled on their support for Israel,” Johnson told Hewitt.
“I mean, and you’ve got members of Congress who refuse to denounce even the chants of ‘Death to America,'” he said, referring to “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
“And some members are, Democrat members of Congress, are even calling these antisemitic mobs peaceful protesters, and defending the harassment, intimidation and all the rest,” Johnson added, in apparent reference to statements from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
“It’s really become a serious problem, and they’re allowing mob rule to overtake the American ideals of free speech and the free exchange of ideas and the free exercise of religion. This is not who we are.”
