President Biden’s co-chairman of the 2024 campaign downplayed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ comparison of rampant anti-Israel protests on college campuses to the 1968 election, arguing that Biden may be handling his own situation in Vietnam.
The national co-chair of Biden’s campaign shut down the Sanders comparison in a comment to CNN on Sunday, calling it “overexaggeration.”
“This is a very different circumstance,” Mitch Landrieu told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “I think people who actually lived through that very difficult time would say that this is not comparable. However, that does not mean that it is not a very serious matter.”
Last week, Sanders joined CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and reflected on the 1960s, when President Lydon B. Johnson did not run for reelection in 1968, and drew a comparison between Biden’s handling of campus protests with Johnson’s lack of support for the coming Vietnam War. of the general elections.
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FILE – White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu speaks during a briefing at the White House, May 12, 2023, in Washington. The massive federal effort to expand Internet access to every home in the U.S. took a big step forward Friday with the announcement of $930 million in “middle mile” grants to shore up connections in dozens of places. throughout the country where significant gaps in connectivity persist. . “These networks are workhorses that transport large amounts of data over very long distances,” Landrieu said. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
“I’m thinking back and other people are referencing that this may be Biden’s Vietnam,” Sanders said.
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“[Former President] Lyndon Johnson was in many ways a very, very good president. At the national level, he introduced some important legislation. He decided not to run in 1968 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam, and I am very concerned that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated, not only young people, but much of the Democratic base, in terms of his views on Israel and this war,” Sanders continued.
FILE – Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 8, 2023. (AP Photo/José Luis Magaña, File)
College protesters and outside agitators have invaded college campuses from coast to coast since last month, setting up camps, such as the “Gaza Solidarity Camp” that was on Columbia’s campus before police removed it, where they demand that schools cut all financial ties with Israel. Amid the campus chaos, agitators and radicals have also called for the death of Israel and the United States and have pledged support for Hamas attacks against Israel.
Biden has condemned violence and anti-Semitism on campus, but took days to publicly address the nation last week as campus protests escalated.
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“There should be no place on any campus, any place in America for anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against “Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans are just wrong. There is no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong, it’s un-American,” Biden said last week.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Abbotts Creek Community Center during an event to promote his economic agenda in Raleigh, North Carolina, on January 18, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
His comment was criticized for denouncing Islamophobia and anti-Semitism at the same time, with critics comparing it to former President Donald Trump’s comments denouncing the Charlottesville riots in 2017, when the 45th president said there were “very fine people on both sides.” .
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Landrieu continued in his remarks that Biden has shown “very strong” leadership amid the protests.
NYPD officers arrest anti-Israel protesters as they block roads outside Senator Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn home in New York City on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
“First and foremost, the First Amendment is vitally important. The president has always believed that people want the opportunity to redress their grievances against the government. This is not something new,” Landrieu said.
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“The president has been very firm about this from the beginning, and the president came out the other day, and as he said, as he has always said, he understands that people have the right to protest, but they have to do it peacefully,” he continued. “But when he becomes violent, that’s when things have to end.”
A pro-Palestinian protester holds a flag on the rooftop of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York, U.S., Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Pro-Palestinian student protesters barricaded themselves at Columbia’s Hamilton Hall building Tuesday after school he began suspending students who defied an order to clear his camp. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
However, critics of the president’s handling have condemned Biden for taking nine days to address anti-Israel agitators on campus on camera. The White House had condemned hate and violence in several comments to the media, but the president did not address the nation on camera until Thursday of last week.
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“Very passionate opinions on both sides of this issue,” Landrieu continued. “The president has been handling it very, very well and he will continue to do so.”
