Stay out or say more? President Biden faces lose-lose proposition with college protests

WASHINGTON ― While pro-Palestinian protests have exploded at colleges across the nation, President Joe Biden has stayed largely silent about campus unrest that complicates his reelection campaign.

Biden has not addressed the protests in a speech.

Nor has he given any public remarks on the college protests at Columbia University and elsewhere in more than a week, with the White House instead issuing statements and addressing questions on the protests through spokespeople.

The approach underscores the no-win situation Biden faces. Biden has remained a steadfast defender of Israel's war against Hamas, putting him at odds with many young progressive voters in his race against former President Donald Trump.

He risks alienating himself even more with these young voters if he speaks out against the protests and applauds actions of university leaders and police to shut down student encampments. But if Biden takes a more forceful defense of the rights of protesters, he risks feeding new lines of attack to Trump and Republicans, who have tried to tie the president to the campus chaos and unlawfulness.

"The president is being kept regularly updated on what's happening," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday at a White House briefing as she was pressed repeatedly on why Americans haven't heard from Biden on the protests. "He is monitoring the situation closely."

More: Columbia faculty, students continue protests; UCLA cancels classes after melee: Live updates

Even as arrests of hundreds of students have produced dramatic images over the past 24 to 48 hours, Biden's most recent comments on the campus protests came April 22, when he called on Americans to speak out against the "alarming surge of antisemitism" in a written statement.

Later that day, he told reporters, "I condemn the antisemitic protests" and added: "I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians."

"No president has spoken more forcefully about combatting antisemitism than this president," Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. "Let's not forget, in 2017 he was very clear about the antisemitic vile that we saw on the streets in Charlottesville, (Virginia) − he called that out. And one of the reasons he stepped into the 2020 election is because of what he saw."

More: President Biden warns of 'alarming surge of antisemitism' after Columbia University protests

A reporter pushed back, noting that speaking out against antisemitism isn't the same as addressing protests unfolding in the present.

"The president has been very, very clear about this," Jean-Pierre reiterated. "He's taken action," she added, pointing to the administration's National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which was released last May.

Todd Belt, professor and political management program director at George Washington University, said Biden knows that voters ages 18 to 29 were an essential part of the coalition that won him the 2020 election.

"He really can't afford to lose them. And he also knows that his party is split on this issue, and if he comes out strongly on one side or the other, he's going to alienate the other side," Belt said. "He's really in a catch-22 on this."

Belt said he believes Biden will eventually have to say more about the protests. "When you have members of Congress calling for the use of the National Guard, the president has to step in and be definitive about what, if and when he would do something like that," he said.

Biden is set to deliver the keynote address May 7 at the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony at the Capitol, giving him a prime opportunity to speak on the widespread protests.

White House officials have condemned the takeover of an academic building at Columbia, other illegal acts and the use of words such as "intifada," the Arabic word for rebellion or uprising, by protesters.

"Americans have a right to peacefully protest, as long as its within the law," Jean-Pierre said. "Forcibly taking over a building is not peaceful. Students have the right to feel safe, they have the right to learn, they have the right to do this without this destruction."

Although Jean-Pierre stopped short of explicitly endorsing the police responses at colleges, she said a "a small percentage of students" should not be able to disrupt the academic experience of others.

The campus unrest comes as the Biden administration is seeking to secure a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that would allow for the release of some of the more than 130 hostages remaining in Gaza.

For months, Biden has been the target of pro-Palestinians protesters who have shadowed his events and coined the name "Genocide Joe."

As arrests were unfolding Tuesday night at Columbia, Trump called into Fox News' telecast to assess Biden's response.

"Biden is supposed to be the voice of our country. And it's certainly not much of a voice. It's a voice that nobody's heard," Trump said. "I don't think he's able to do it. I don't think he's got what it takes to do it. But he's got to. He's got to strengthen up and he's got to be heard."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden stays mostly silent amid college campus chaos