BIDEN STILL STUCK IN “VERY FINE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES” MODE: Biden Satisfies No One With Lackluster Speech Decrying ‘Antisemitism & Islamophobia:’
Summary: Last night, CNN spent its prime time segment decrying the Democratic president’s “radio silence” on the Gaza-related campus protests and chaos. MSM pundits have pointed to his lack of leadership as violence at times erupted from UCLA to Columbia to a number of elite schools.
As expected, Biden began by trying to chart a kind of middle course condemning “antisemitism” and “Islamophobia”… though many conservatives have pointed out it’s only the former they are seeing evidence of during these campus protests.
“Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder or denying the rights of others… no place for hate speech in America,” Biden said. “Denying the rights of others” appears a very vague reference to students occupying buildings, and denying the ability of tuition-paying students to go to their classes, libraries, or to take exams.
“In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isn’t a moment for politics. It’s a moment for clarity. So let me be clear…Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is.”
“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows*, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation. None of this is a peaceful protest, threatening people, intimidating people,” Biden said.
We should note that Biden’s ‘middle way’ attempt (akin to “good folks on both sides” rhetoric that the Left gets angry about) is unlikely to satisfy either side. In the end, this lackluster speech is not going to make the encampments disappear, or the protesters disperse.
* Wait until Biden discovers what his vice president was doing in 2020:
Prior to today’s typically lackluster speech, the Washington Free Beacon dubbed Biden “The Invisible President:”
We’re not in the business of offering political advice to President Joe Biden, but it is hard to miss his absence from the situation. The New York Times calls him a “bystander,” and the president has forsaken the bully pulpit for strongly worded statements meted out through various spokesmen. “The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach,” the spokesman, John F. Kirby, told reporters hours before officers cleared the hall. “That is not an example of peaceful protest.”
Good to know. The chaos engulfing the campuses is but a first foretaste of the bitter cup which will be proffered to Biden at the Democratic convention this summer, when the same protesters, with degrees from the same “elite” institutions bring their “peaceful” protest tactics to Chicago intent on wreaking havoc.
Biden wants to blend into the curtains.
And ultimately, at least on this issue, he still does, which seems an odd stance for someone who’s ideology believes that “silence=violence,” and who tweeted in 2020 (or far more likely whose handlers tweeted):
And as a result, the increasingly Corbynized left are at an inflection point: Democrats enter panic mode as Gaza protests erupt.
On the other hand though, Biden, through his silence, is creating a path for both sides of the aisle to move forward in agreement! ‘F*ck Joe Biden’ Chant Unites Pro-Palestinian and Counter-Protesters at University of Alabama.