Jessica Costescu of the Washington Free Beacon reports on a significant field trip for Republican members of Congress.
A group of Republican lawmakers, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), descended on Columbia University on Wednesday and called for school president Minouche Shafik’s resignation.
Their remarks, delivered at a press conference on the steps of Columbia’s Low Library, elicited near-constant jeers from the student protesters, many of whom have also been demanding Shafik’s head.
Johnson, who was joined by fellow Republican representatives Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Anthony D’Esposito (N.Y.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), and Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), admonished Shafik for allowing “hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish” at the Ivy League institution. He also called for the arrest of the unauthorized student protesters who have occupied the school’s south lawn since last Wednesday, when Shafik testified before a House panel on the exclusion of anti-Semitism on the Manhattan campus.
“We just can’t allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses, and it must be stopped in its tracks,” Johnson said. “Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested.”
“I am here joining my colleagues and calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” the speaker said.
Johnson told the Washington Free Beacon that if Shafik fails to take immediate action, Columbia’s board must find a leader who will.
“This is a dangerous situation, and we met with Jewish students today who are in legitimate fear of their physical safety,” Johnson said in an interview following the press conference. “They can’t attend classes, they can’t study for their finals—it’s already stressful enough, right?”
“A university administrator has one first and basic responsibility, and that is the safety and security of their students,” he went on. “If they cannot maintain that, they need to find somebody who can.”
