House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he “encouraged” President Biden to see the “virus” of antisemitism at Columbia University firsthand after Johnson visited Morningside Heights with his GOP colleagues last week.
“After we left the campus, I made a call to senior policy advisers in the White House,” Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “The president was on the road, as I was, and we did not connect immediately, but I’ve encouraged him to go and see it for himself.”
Johnson revealed his plea to Biden as House Republicans announced a chamber-wide crackdown on antisemitism headed up by committee leaders, declaring that they would hold university leaders, administration officials and donors accountable for a surge in public Jew-hatred on campus.
“Antisemitism is a virus, and because the administration and woke university presidents aren’t stepping in, we’re seeing it spread,” Johnson added. “We have to act.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Early Tuesday, a mob of masked rioters broke into Columbia’s Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside after the university ordered anti-Israel demonstrators to vacate their tent encampment Monday afternoon.
The students who occupied the academic building later draped a long white flag with the word “INTIFADA” written in red letters on its façade.
Administrators had begun suspending the hundreds of students who remained in open defiance of the 2 p.m. Monday deadline to vacate following nearly two weeks of protest.
“This is not the free expression of ideas,” Johnson said Tuesday. “It is the opposite. It is threatening, violent and inciting speech, and it’s dangerous and it is acknowledged by university administrators to be dangerous as evidenced by their cancellation of classes.”
“They are breaking the law,” he added. “They are threatening fellow students. This is not who we are as Americans, so get control.”
Johnson and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) renewed their calls for Columbia President Minouche Shafik to resign the following day.
“We’re here to deliver a message to Hamas, Iran, and members of the ‘Squad’ including my Minnesota colleague Ilhan Omar, who have all endorsed these antisemitic protests — that enough is enough,” Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said of the Democratic lawmaker who claimed last week Jewish students were divided between those who either support or oppose the genocide of Palestinians.
“Joe Biden, far-left Democrat governors like [in] my home state of New York and morally bankrupt university leaders have allowed this moral rot of antisemitism to fester, refusing to enforce the laws and refusing to ensure the safety of Jewish students,” Stefanik said.
House Education and Workforce Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) added that she has requested the presidents of Yale University, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Michigan come before Congress on May 23 to testify about antisemitic “outbreaks” on their campuses.
Other committee leaders, like Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said their panels would delve into hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and “generous” tax breaks enjoyed by the universities.
“We will be increasing our oversight of institutions that have received public funding and cracking down on those who are in violation of the Civil Rights Act,” McMorris Rodgers said.
“Our investigation has already produced more than 1,500 pages of documents that we are now actively reviewing,” Smith added. “We will not stop until we get answers, until Jewish students can feel safe.”
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also said his panel was demanding information from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security about how many overseas students here on visas have been flagged for “endorsing or espousing terrorist activity” by praising Hamas since its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7.
“This is a time for decisive leadership,” Johnson said of the joint committee effort. “We’re living in fateful moments here. We do not have time for weakness.”
“If they don’t correct this quickly, you will see Congress responding, you’re gonna see funding sources begin to dry up, you’re gonna see every level of accountability that we can muster.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also condemned the property destruction and lawlessness at Columbia in a floor speech on Tuesday.
“Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech — it is lawlessness, and those who did it should promptly face the consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist,” Schumer said.
“Campuses cannot be places of learning and argument and discussion when protests veer into criminality, and those who commit such acts are doing nothing to convince others that their cause is just,” he added.
“It is also unacceptable when Jewish students are targeted for being Jewish — when protests exhibit verbal abuse, systemic intimidation, or glorification of the murderous and hateful Hamas or the violence of October 7th,” the Brooklyn Democrat went on.
“As I said in my speech here on the Senate floor last November and many times since: that is antisemitism. It is loathsome and unacceptable.”
