White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre praised the UNC-Chapel Hill fraternity brothers who defended the Star-Spangled Banner during campus protests related to the war in Gaza.
After anti-Israel demonstrators replaced the American flag at the University of North Carolina on Chapel Hill’s Quad with the Palestinian flag, the local chapter of Pikappapi defended the flag for more than an hour until police could safely remove the protester. I’ll put it back on the flagpole. All the while, the Frafra brothers experienced profanity, middle fingers, and water, bottles, and stones thrown at them by protesters.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre about the incident on Friday, pointing out that GoFundMe had raised more than $500,000 for the fraternity to throw a “rager,” or wild party. Doocy asked if Biden would support the donation like he would for other causes.
Jean-Pierre maintained that Americans have the right to protest peacefully, but added, “It’s not right to forcefully remove the Stars and Stripes and replace it with another flag. So I wanted to make that clear. Only,” he said.
The White House press secretary spoke about the fraternal organization that defended the Star-Spangled Banner.
Republican lawmaker writes letter to brothers who defended American flag: “Your parents raised you right”
Mr. Doocy went on to ask whether Mr. Biden would be interested in making a thank you call to the fraternity.
The White House press secretary said, “It’s a great thing to protect the Star-Spangled Banner. Let’s leave it there,” and moved on.
The GoFundMe page talked about the wave of protests happening on campuses across the country.
“Communist losers across the country are infiltrating college campuses and making stupid demands of weak college administrators,” the GoFundMe page says. “But in the midst of the chaos, the screaming, the anti-Semitism, the hatred of our faith and our flag, there stood a platoon of American heroes… [who] Defended Old Glory from hordes of unwashed Marxists. ”
UNC-Chapel Hill students hold American flags during a protest on campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. During the demonstration, anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag. (Parker Ali/Daily Tar Heel)
UNC student defends American flag from campus mob: “It’s an honor to give back to my country.”
Fox News spoke to several members of the fraternity who confronted protesters on that campus, including Dan Stompel, a junior studying political science at UNC.
“Don’t bend the knee to these people. They want to take over. They just want to destroy what this country stands for and bring their twisted ideology into every hole in this country. And we can’t let them do that,” Stompel told Fox News Digital. “If it really took, let’s say, 30 guys to stop thousands of people because we took a stand and we didn’t let it get away with…If you really believe in something, that problem… Others who are kind of wishy-washy about you can’t have any doubts.
FOX News’ Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.
