President Biden’s co-chairman of the 2024 campaign has dismissed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ comparison of rampant anti-Israel protests on college campuses to the 1968 election, saying Biden has personally criticized the situation in Vietnam. He claimed that he may be dealing with it.
In comments to CNN on Sunday, the Biden campaign’s national co-chair dismissed comparisons with Sanders as “over-exaggerated.”
“This is a completely different situation,” Mitch Landrieu told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “I think people who actually lived through those very difficult times would say there’s no comparison to this. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a serious problem.”
Last week, Sanders sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to look back at the 1960s, when President Lydon B. Johnson did not run for re-election in 1968, discuss Biden’s response to university protests and the future of Vietnam. compared it with Johnson’s lack of support for the war. of the general election.
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FILE – White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu speaks during a briefing at the White House on May 12, 2023 in Washington. A massive federal effort to expand internet access to every household in the U.S. will begin Friday with $930 million in “middle mile” grants to boost connectivity in dozens of locations across the country where wide disparities remain. With the announcement of $1,000,000, we made great progress. . “These networks are workhorses that carry large amounts of data over very long distances,” Landrieu said. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
“I’ve been looking back and others have mentioned that this could be Biden’s Vietnam,” Sanders said.
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”[Former President] Lyndon Johnson was a very good president in many ways. Domestically, he introduced several important bills. Although he chose not to run in 1968 because he disagreed with his own views on Vietnam, President Biden is putting himself in a position that will alienate not only young people but many Democratic bases. I’m very worried about this. Given his own views on Israel and this war,” Sanders continued.
FILE – Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a hearing at the Capitol on Thursday, June 8, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
University protesters and outside agitators have been pouring onto university campuses from coast to coast since last month, encamping like the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Columbia University’s campus before being cleared by police. It requires schools to sever economic ties with Israel. Amidst the unrest at the university, agitators and extremists also called for the death of Israel and the United States and pledged support for Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Biden has condemned violence and anti-Semitism on campus, but took several days before publicly addressing the nation last week amid escalating campus protests.
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“There should be no place on any campus or in America for anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There should be no place for any kind of hate speech or violence to exist.”Palestinian Americans, that is simply wrong. There is no place for racism in America. That’s all wrong,” Biden said last week.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Abbotts Creek Community Center during an event promoting economic policy on January 18, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
His comments were criticized for blaming Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the same breath, with critics comparing them to former President Donald Trump’s condemnation of the 2017 Charlottesville riots. The 45th president said, “There are very fine people on both sides.”
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Landrieu went on to comment that Biden has shown “very strong” leadership during the protests.
New York City police officers arrest an anti-Israel demonstrator who blocked the road outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s home in Brooklyn, New York, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
“First of all, the First Amendment is very important,” Landrieu said. “The president has always believed that people want an opportunity to air their grievances against the government. This is not new.” Stated.
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“The president has been very bullish on this from the beginning, and the president came out the other day, and as he said, as he has always said, he understands that people have a right to protest. “But you have to protest peacefully,” he continued. “But when it turns violent, that’s when you have to end things.”
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a flag on the roof of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 in New York, USA. On Tuesday, pro-Palestinian student demonstrators barricaded themselves in Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall building after school. They began suspending students who did not comply with orders to vacate their encampments. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But critics of the president’s response charge that it took Biden nine days to address anti-Israel campus agitators on camera. Although the White House had condemned hatred and violence in various comments to the media, the president did not address the nation on camera until last Thursday.
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“There are very passionate opinions on both sides of this issue,” Landrieu continued. “The president has handled it very well and will continue to do so.”
