House Speaker Mike Johnson, joined by fellow House Republicans, called on Columbia University president Minouche Shafik to resign “if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos.”
For more than a week, the university has sought to crack down pro-Palestinian protests that emerged after Shafik testified before a congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus.
“[University officials] have proven themselves to be incapable of achieving their basic responsibility, which is keeping students safe,” the Louisiana lawmaker said during a news conference at the university.
Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment at the university as Shafik testified before Congress last week. Police cleared the protest and arrested about 100 students.
Since then, protesters set up a new encampment on the university lawn. Similar encampments have been staged at other big universities across the country.
Johnson condemned the protests as antisemitic and said Jewish students were being harassed and felt unsafe.
“The harassing and the intimidation and the threatening of innocent Jewish students simply because of who they are. They call that peaceful protest and some have even gone as far as to call for the state of Israel to be eliminated,” Johnson said
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