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Democrats arrived to work in Washington facing yet another no-win news cycle around Israel, as a fresh round of police raids on campus protests continued to split their party.
The reactions ranged from fiery denunciations of police tactics as an authoritarian overreaction to equally sharp denunciations of the protests themselves as cover for antisemitism and terrorism.
“The protesters at Columbia demonstrated that there are two factions of the protesters — there’s the pro-Hamas, and then there’s the really pro-Hamas,” Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman told Semafor. He was, he said, “glad that they chose to have the police come in and take charge.”
In the House, Rep. Jamaal Bowman delivered an impassioned speech backing the protests at Columbia University, in which he accused police of inflicting “brutality” on student demonstrators who were cleared from their encampment and campus buildings Tuesday night.
“And for what?” he asked. “Simply exercising their first amendment rights to peacefully assemble as they protest the collective punishment of civilians in Gaza.”
At a press conference hours later, Minority Leader defended the police’s approach. “As far as I can tell, the efforts by the NYPD were thorough, professional and they exercised a degree of calm in a very tense situation,” he said. “That should be commended.“
According to one senior Democratic aide, the party’s House leaders did not offer any messaging guidance to members regarding the demonstrations. “Democrats don’t want to bring attention to the protests,” they said.
Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont progressive, said the party was feeling the pressure with the election growing closer.
“I’m an anxious little Jewish woman, I’m an anxious little dyke from Vermont, of course I’m worried,” she said. “How can I not be worried? Frickin’ Trump is a freaking maniac and he’s like neck and neck. Of course I’m worried. I’m anxious all the time.”
But addressing it meant a balancing act. She said Biden needed to “speak directly to these young people who are devastated by the incredible suffering that’s going on right now” and “be a champion for free speech” while also condemning antisemitism that “right now is off the charts.”
Sen. Jon Tester, up for re-election in red state Montana, emphasized that the specific tactics of the protests — including breaking into Columbia’s Hamilton Hall — crossed the bounds of protected speech.
“I am all about First amendment rights, free speech, the ability to protest,” he told Semafor. “But if those protesters are committing crimes, violence, breaking windows, they need to be dealt with in a way that’s commensurate with their actions.”
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These questions of balancing protection for speech with fears of intimidation on campus played out on the House floor, where Democrats debated whether to sign onto a bill directing the Department of Education to investigate alleged instances of antisemitism on campus using the definition created by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which encompasses some criticisms of Israel common among activists.
The bill ultimately passed 320-to-91, with 70 Democrats opposing it. The bill won backing from Jeffries and other party leaders. But some criticized the legislation as a bad faith messaging exercise by Republicans. “It doesn’t do anything to combat antisemitism,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, one of the most senior Jewish Democrats in Congress, told Politico. “It’s pure demagoguery.”
Some Republicans also shared objections to the wording as overly broad. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warned on X that a provision prohibiting symbols tying Israel to accusations that Jews killed Jesus “could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.”
Our View
The root of the Democrats’ problems ultimately is not a specific protest group or tactic or bill. Rather, it’s a deep, substantive divide among their elected officials, voters, donors, and interest groups over Israel and Gaza. One recurring sentiment among Democrats on Wednesday was that the surest route to progress on unrest at home was progress on ending the war abroad, one way or another.
Several noted that the Biden administration has been trying to push Hamas and the Israeli government towards a deal that would free hostages and implement a temporary ceasefire with the hopes of a more durable deal later on.
“It just demonstrates the critical need for us to continue to work to find a hostage release and ceasefire,” Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine told Semafor.
In the meantime, Kaine suggested Biden and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona point to “campuses where this is being handled well, where there’s robust debate and dialogue about this very tough issue without disruption” as models for others to follow.
Kadia Goba contributed reporting