Mike Johnson vows to bring professors, students to Congress over college antisemitism
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 7 months ago • 3 commentsBy: LevineJonathan (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
College professors and even students can expect to be hauled in front of Congress as part of House Speaker Mike Johnson's effort to stamp out antisemitism on campuses.
In an exclusive interview with The Post, Johnson blasted student protests in support of "evil" and said no stone would be left unturned by his House colleagues.
"I think we need accountability from top to bottom," Johnson said. "The idea that some of these professors would be involved in this is outrageous, and I think they need to be called to account and of course the students as well."
Up until now university leaders have borne the brunt of House GOP fire, most famously Harvard president Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill — both of whom resigned amid fallout from their disastrous testimony.
Johnson said his meeting with Columbia president Minouche Shafik last week left him deeply unimpressed.
He has already called on her to resign.
"I sat down with the president there, Shafik, and told her she had to get control and she said, 'I'm trying to negotiate with them.' And that's not how you handle this. You don't negotiate with aspiring terrorists," said Johnson.
Earlier this week Johnson announced a full House effort to stamp out the Hamas agitators on campus, holding a press conference with his most powerful committee chairs.
Among other things, the GOP grandees said axing federal funding for universities that fail to clean up antisemitism would be on the table.
On Wednesday the Lousiana Republican shepherded through Congress a broadly bipartisan bill to expand the definition of antisemitism.
It faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has refused to say whether he would bring the bill to a vote.
Reps for the White House also did not respond to multiple requests from The Post about whether President Biden would sign it.
"They are destroying property, they're waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags, they're breaking into buildings, they're chanting 'Heil Hitler,'" Johnson said, explaining why he was so passionate about the issue. "This is not a gray area.
"The Jewish students we spoke to had been verbally harassed and spit on. They've been told to 'Go back to the gas chambers.'"
Johnson reiterated his call for President Biden to send in the National Guard to unruly campuses, recalling President Eisenhower's 1957 decision to send federal troops to Little Rock, Ark. to integrate schools there when racist mobs and local leaders refused to do so.
"When schools are violating civil rights laws, and violating federal law, yes, there is an appropriate federal response. We need more Eisenhower and less Biden," Johnson said.
The speaker — who, depending on the day, commands a perilous one seat majority — told The Post he is confident he will retain his job despite growing calls for his removal by a clutch of far-right lawmakers opposed to his support of $60 billion in US aid to Ukraine.
The House rebels are led by perennial rabble-rouser Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who called the House vote a "complete betrayal" by Johnson.
Greene filed a motion to vacate against Johnson — the same procedure used to topple former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
4Johnson is facing a challenge to his job from far-right radicals led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Getty Images
"I can tell you that 99% of our conference agrees that this motion to vacate is wrong for our party, wrong for the institution and wrong for the country," Johnson said. "It's a recipe for chaos. And it could happen at a very dangerous time.
"Marjorie enjoys attention. I think that's pretty clear," he said curtly.
Johnson, who once was a Ukraine skeptic and previously voted against new rounds of funding for the country, famously pivoted on the issue — something he attributed in part to new intelligence he received after becoming Speaker.
"Our own generals tell us that Ukraine would literally run out of ammo and defenses by the end of April. And so there's a fateful moment of decision. Do we abandon Ukraine in its time of greatest need?" Johnson said.
"So we came to this moment of fateful decision — it was Churchill or Chamberlain."
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It faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has refused to say whether he would bring the bill to a vote.
Why would they do that?
Are they afraid some dems won't vote for it?
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I think that because of some of the things I've been seeing and reading (like this issue) I'm beginning to lean a little right of what I've always considered to be a relatively centrist position when it comes to a lot of American political issues (but I still would never vote for either Trump or Biden if I were an American citizen).