Speaker Johnson calls on President Biden to attend campus protests, emphasizing the need for strong leadership

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is pressing President Joe Biden to visit a growing pro-Palestinian protest on Columbia University’s campus, lamenting there has been a “vacuum of leadership” as the student encampment continues to garner national attention.

Johnson said he contacted the White House shortly after making his own visit to Columbia last week with a plea to the president to visit the campus and see the protests for himself. The speaker said he spoke with a senior policy adviser and “did not connect immediately” with Biden on the issue.

“This is not a gray issue. There is right and wrong here,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “There’s good and evil, in my view, and we need to call it out for what it is.”

The Washington Examiner contacted the White House for comment. Biden was in New York City recently where he sat down for an interview with radio host Howard Stern, but did not stop by campus.

Johnson’s call comes as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University that have spread to other college campuses across the country over the last week. Lawmakers have even gone so far as to call on university officials to resign if they cannot quash the protests, which have stoked fear among some Jewish students and prompted some of them to leave altogether.

Columbia officials said they have been in talks with student organizers over the last week on how to move forward with complying with university rules, although President Minouche Shafik said they were “not able to come to an agreement.”

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Republicans and Democrats alike have decried the protests due to antisemitic chants and signs being displayed at some of the protests. However, several student organizers have argued much of that behavior is unrelated to their demonstrations and has come from outside groups.

Still, the discussion is expected to be at the forefront of Congress’s attention this week as the House takes up a proposal to codify a Trump-era executive order that would direct the Education Department to treat antisemitism as a Civil Rights Act violation on college campuses. The bill could cause a rift among House Democrats as party members have argued over what constitutes antisemitic behavior.