Top Democrats are pouncing on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after he gave an impassioned speech condemning the anti-Israel protests on Columbia University\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n
\u2018Why would I ever listen to a man that thinks he should have more say over my body than I do? NEXT,\u2019 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on X under a photo of Johnson at Columbia.<\/p>\n
She responded to a report about students heckling Johnson, \u2018Good, he\u2019s trying to take all their reproductive rights away.\u2019<\/p>\n
Johnson and several New York House Republicans \u2013 Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Anthony D\u2019Esposito, and Mike Lawler \u2013 visited with Jewish students on the Manhattan Ivy League campus on Thursday after days of demonstrations left them fearing for their own safety.<\/p>\n
The speaker denounced the \u2018mob\u2019 of pro-ceasefire activists who set up an encampment on the Columbia campus as well as the faculty and staff aiding them. Those protesters loudly booed Johnson\u2019s remarks on Thursday, to which at one point he shot back, \u2018Enjoy your free speech.\u2019<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul accused Johnson of politicizing the demonstrations in comments to reporters in Albany, according to Politico.<\/p>\n
\u2018A speaker worth the title should really be trying to heal people and not divide them, so I don\u2019t think it adds to anything,\u2019 Hochul said. \u2018It seems to me there\u2019s a lot more responsibilities and crises to be dealt with in Washington\u2026I\u2019d encourage the speaker to go back and perhaps take up the migrant bill, the bill to deal with closing the borders, so we can deal with the real crisis that New York has.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., whose daughter was arrested at the Columbia encampment earlier this week, went a step further and said Johnson was putting people\u2019s lives in danger.<\/p>\n
\u2018It is not surprising that he would go out to Columbia University and stir up really more anger and hate and endanger the lives of young people who are at the encampment at Columbia University,\u2019 she told MSNBC.<\/p>\n
The speaker\u2019s office told Fox News Digital in response to the attacks, \u2018Speaker Johnson spoke to students at Columbia University because Governor 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. We wish it hadn\u2019t been necessary.\u2019<\/p>\n
His appearance at Columbia came as officials on both sides of the aisle condemned the demonstrations, which have forced the university to partially move classes online. Similar protests have cropped up at colleges across the country, including at Yale University, where a Jewish student said they were hit in the eye with a flag pole during an anti-Israel event.<\/p>\n
\u2018The college campus used to be the place for respectful debate, for the differences of opinion and the free marketplace of ideas to be discussed. That is not what is happening here,\u2019 Johnson told the activists on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019re intimidating and shouting down people you disagree with. You cannot censor and silence viewpoints you disagree with. That is not American. You do not understand what it means to respect the First Amendment.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
Top Democrats are pouncing on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after he gave an impassioned speech condemning the anti-Israel protests on Columbia University\u2019s campus. \u2018Why would I ever listen to a man that thinks he should have more say over my body than I do? NEXT,\u2019 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on X under a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}