Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio accused pro-Palestinian protesters of turning college campuses into “garbage dumps” and called the demonstrators “crazy.”
Vance spoke with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Tuesday to discuss the start of the new semester at Columbia University, where violence erupted at a pro-Palestinian encampment earlier this year and sparked a nationwide movement calling for the U.S. to stop supplying weapons to Israel in its war with Hamas.
Vance said that if elected, he and former President Trump would “enforce the law.”
“Nobody has the right to harass their fellow classmates. Nobody has the right to set up 10 camps and turn a college campus into a dumping ground. And nobody has the right to prevent their fellow classmates from attending class,” Vance said. “This is not rocket science.”
Following the encampment that began at Columbia University at the end of the spring semester, students at more than 400 higher education institutions across the U.S. began their own encampments. The demonstrations have been largely peaceful, but some have turned violent as police and students clashed over First Amendment rights and the continuing war in Gaza.
Vance reiterated the need to enforce the law.
“Whether it's anti-Semitism or any other form of bigotry, we just enforce the law,” he said.
“Let crazy people protest within the confines of the First Amendment and the appropriate legal framework and college campuses will be fine,” Vance continued.
The Ohio senator criticized university officials for allowing students to break the law, harass other students and turn campuses into “garbage dumps.”
“Just stop it. Enforce the law,” he said. “Let people have their say, but make sure they don't cause trouble for their classmates. It's not hard.”
