U.S. Speaker demands resignation of Columbia University head

U.S. Speaker demands resignation of Columbia University head | Daily Tribune

United States Speaker Mike Johnson demanded the resignation of Columbia University’s president for allegedly allowing anti-semitism to engulf the campus as student protesters were arrested in other universities on Wednesday.

“I am here today joining my colleagues, and calling on President (Minouche) Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” Johnson said Wednesday at a news conference at the New York City university while confronting student protesters who booed and interrupted his speech, CNN reports.

Johnson kept his poise and responded to the hecklers by saying, “Enjoy your free speech.”

Other Republican lawmakers were with Johnson visiting Jewish students and to meet with Shafik.

“We met briefly with the president and her top officials right before we came out on the steps here. We encouraged her to take immediate action and stamp this out and our feeling is that they have not acted to restore order on the campus,” he said, according to CNN.

Johnson also said that President Joe Biden should take action or there would be a need for the National Guard to step in.

“We have to bring order to these campuses,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, 93 people were arrested Wednesday at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Los Angeles campus for trespassing, police said, after pro-Palestinian protests that started the Columbia University spread to other universities.

The Los Angeles Police Department wrote on social media platform X that there were no reports of any injuries. Patrols will remain in the area through tomorrow.”

USC said on X at around midnight that the protest had ended and the campus would remain “closed until further notice.”

“Students, faculty, staff, and people with business on campus may enter with proper identification,” it added.

The pro-Palestinian demonstration at USC was among the latest to involve a confrontation between law enforcement and students angry at the mounting death toll in Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Dozens of arrests also were made last week at Columbia University after authorities called in police to quell an occupation that some Jewish students said was threatening and anti-Semitic.

Austin Police said they had arrested more than 20 people at the University of Texas where hundreds of protesters staged a boisterous walkout, chanting “down with occupation,” referring to riot police present on campus.