Johnson appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” to discuss his visit Wednesday to the New York City university’s campus as pro-Palestine protesters have been demonstrating at the school since April 17. While tensions have heightened between officials and the pro-Palestine protesters at the university, Fox host Jesse Watters questioned Johnson’s pushback from activists during his speech at the school. (RELATED: ‘Mike, You Suck!’: Mike Johnson Fires Back At Rowdy Pro-Palestinian Protesters During University Speech)
“We did our job today, we spoke out,” Johnson stated. “It was chaos on the campus. We were looking out into a sea of students’ faces with rage, so many of them don’t even know what the heck they are talking about. They don’t know what Hamas has done, they deny the facts of October 7th, some of them denied 9/11. I mean they are out there waving Palestinian-Hamas flags, identifying with terrorists, and saying ‘death to America’ on our own soil. The American people are not putting up with this and Congress isn’t either.”
Watters continued to press the House Speaker on whether he believes this could be the beginning of something larger or if it’s just people “getting out of control.”
“If we don’t bring order to this chaos it could escalate,” Johnson stated. “I mean, clearly. By some estimates, there was a Fox News reporter a couple days ago [saying] maybe 200 campuses have some form of this. Columbia [University] stands out because it’s one of the great institutions – it has a revered history there and they are trampling over it.”
“This is not the expression of free speech, it’s not the free exchange of ideas in the public square,” he continued. “This is threatening and intimidating Jewish students because of who they are [and] what they believe. We met with a big group of Jewish students before we went to the campus and they’re hiding in fear. They don’t go to class, they’re afraid they’re going to be assaulted. It’s not fair to them. Some of them had to bring up federal lawsuits, civil rights violations that are being committed there.”
“Taxpayer dollars should not be going to institutions that are engaging in this kind of nonsense. If you are an administrator on a university campus, your number one job, the first and most obvious, is the safety and security of your students. If you can’t guarantee that, we need to find somebody who can,” Johnson added.
Since the start of Columbia University’s protests for Palestine support last week, schools across the U.S., such as the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Texas at Austin, have erupted in protests. With no end in sight for Columbia’s protests, the university’s President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik ordered Tuesday that the remaining classes for the semester shift to online programs, stating that while she is “saddened” by the decision the school needs a “reset.”
While many have called out the activists on campus, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised the protesting across Ivy League campuses during a speech Monday for Earth Day. Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar was seen Tuesday addressing pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Minnesota saying she was “moved” by the “courage and bravery” of activists on campus.