US House Speaker Johnson calls for resignation of Columbia University’s president as Hamas praises anti-Zionist student protests

In a Wednesday interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he was visiting Columbia University “to call on the president of the university to resign.”

"This President Shafik has shown to be a very weak, inept leader,” Johnson said, regarding the ongoing anti-Zionist, pro-Hamas protests taking place on the Columbia University campus.

“They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students? They’re expected to run for their lives and stay home from class? It’s maddening."

"Every leader in this country – every political official, every citizen of good conscience – has to speak out and say that this is not who we are in America, and we got to have accountability and that's what my colleagues and I are going to be working on."

Johnson also said: “We need to revoke federal funding to these universities if they cannot keep control,” as well as “to revoke these student visas for these violent protestors.”

“We’re not getting strong leadership obviously from the White House,” Johnson said. “I mean the White House is caving to the antisemitic – I call it the ‘pro-Hamas’ – wing of the party now.”

In a press conference held at the university yesterday, Johnson said that “as Columbia has allowed these lawless agitators and radicals to take over, the virus of antisemitism has spread across other campuses. By some counts, as many as 200 universities have a similar form of protest right now.”

“I’m here today joining my colleagues in calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos,” Johnson concluded.

While there has not been actual violence on the Columbia University campus, it has taken place on other campuses, and many protesters at Columbia have explicitly called for it.

The Jerusalem Post reported about a chant from Columbia University student protestors that explicitly supported Hamas and its violent attacks on the Israeli public.

“We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground. Go Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets, too.”

One woman who spoke at Columbia’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” declared the following: "Let it be known that it was the Al-Aqsa Flood that put the global intifada back on the table again. And it is the sacrificial spirit of the Palestinian freedom fighters that will guide every struggle on every corner of the earth to victory."

She spoke of “revolution” and “rebellion,” quoted a “great black communist,” and stated that “to fight tooth and nail against our enemy by any means necessary is to fight for life itself.”

"Remember that militancy breeds resistance!” she shouted to a cheering crowd. “Thousands upon thousands of students around the world have been moved to rebel because of your militancy."

A spokesman for Hamas praised the protests, saying, "We in the Hamas movement believe that any popular movement demanding an end to the aggression and genocide against our people are useful and supportive activities for our cause.”

The Hamas spokesman went on to say that “the importance of this increases if these activities involve young people and university students, given that this reflects the vision of future generations.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the surge of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric spreading across American universities and college campuses.

In a video statement on Wednesday, Netanyahu condemned the rallies led by “antisemitic mobs” and urged college administrators to stop them.

"What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific. Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally. But that’s not what happened. The response of several university presidents was shameful,” Netanyahu argued.

While Columbia President Minouch Shafik has publicly condemned the Oct. 7 attacks, as well as on-campus antisemitism, she has been widely criticized for her minimal response to the pro-Hamas protests.

Shafik was previously vice president of the World Bank and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

She also worked as president of the London School of Economics for many years., an institution that was founded by the radical socialists of the Fabian Society.

The Fabian Society’s original coat of arms depicted a wolf in sheep’s clothing, having been founded by eugenicist George Bernard Shaw and others to surreptitiously utilize the democratic system to steer society towards socialism.

In a 2021 speech, Shafik praised the Fabian Society, saying she considered herself a “custodian” of the “Fabian inheritance” and the “legacy” of Fabian socialist Sidney Ball.

Shafik is currently on the Board of Trustees for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.