House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling Wednesday for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign over her handling of anti-Israel demonstrations on campus, calling her “very weak” and “inept.”
Johnson said during a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that he is holding a press conference at Columbia University later today “with some of my colleagues from the House Republicans from New York to call on the president of the university to resign.”
“This President Shafik has shown to be a very weak, inept leader. They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students? They are expected to run for their lives and stay home from class? It’s maddening,” Johnson said. “What we are seeing on these college campuses across the country is disgusting and unacceptable and 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.’ And we got to have accountability and that is what my colleagues and I will be working on.”
New York House Republicans on Monday, in a joint letter, have called for Shafik to step down. On Wednesday, Columbia University posted on its website that “Student protesters have committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents” at an encampment there, amongst other efforts to diffuse tensions from the anti-Israel demonstrations.
ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPUS PROTESTERS MAKE DEMAND OF ADMINISTRATORS, VOW TO STAY PUT UNTIL UNIVERSITIES MEET IT
Columbia University President Nemat Shafik testifies before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Antisemitism” on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“We have Jewish students who have actually been physically assaulted, they have been harassed, they have been intimidated and threatened… we need to revoke federal funding to these universities if they cannot keep control,”…
