When I got up this morning, I flipped through several news channels as I typically do. There was only one story being covered for the most part. Everyone was delivering live coverage of the action unfolding at the UCLA campus after the LAPD finally moved in to break up the ongoing pro-Hamas protests. Police decked out in riot gear were tearing down barricades and continually firing flashbangs as they faced off against a collection of students, faculty, and outside professional agitators who were almost all wearing hardhats, gas masks, and goggles to protect themselves from teargas. (Who is paying for all of this hardware?) The press spiced up the coverage with occasional comments from political leaders ranging from Donald Trump to Speaker Johnson, all of whom condemned the rioters. But there was one figure conspicuously missing in this debate. Where is President Joe Biden? He apparently has little to nothing to say about all of this mayhem. The Free Beacon pointed out the President’s MIA status yesterday in a column titled, “The Invisible President.”
For more than a week now, the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protests convulsing university campuses have been the biggest news story in the country.
The protests, in many cases abetted by university faculty, have put a national spotlight on the illiberalism and intellectual rot at the heart of American “higher” education and the DEI regime that makes it hum.
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.”
Even the President’s spokespeople are trying to walk a tightrope on this crisis, not wishing to offend the pro-Hamas activists. Note how John Kirby was only willing to say that forcibly “taking over a building” (a reference to Columbia University) was “the wrong approach.” When KJP was finally asked about Biden’s silence, she once again immediately dropped into a full-blown denial of reality.
REPORTER: Once again — why hasn’t Biden been more “forceful” in speaking against the pro-Hamas mob on college campuses?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: “No other president has spoken about antisemitism than this president!” 🤔
REPORTER: “That’s not the question — it’s the protests.” pic.twitter.com/gHAJB7qK1b
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 1, 2024
We have long since passed the point where we are observing “protests” or “free speech.” Some of the media talking heads are still gamely trying to draw comparisons to the antiwar protests of the 60s or even the Tea Party, but this isn’t remotely the same thing. When people are overrunning and destroying buildings, shutting down college campuses and the flow of commerce, and threatening the lives of Jews or anyone who opposes them, we’re not talking about a protest. This is a crime wave and an assault on society as a whole. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of the country totally disagrees with the protesters’ goals and demands. These bloodyminded fools have become a menace to society.
So we should ask yet again… where is Joe Biden? During times like this, a real leader would be speaking out and urging calm, supporting a return to law and order. But that’s not Scranton Joe’s style. From the day he took office, he demonstrated that not only was the idea of law and order not a priority for him, but he saw it as an obstacle to his goals. He refuses to enforce immigration laws and criticizes police when they do their jobs. Why would he come out in opposition to rioting? To do so might cost him a couple of votes in Michigan and Minnesota.
While others are out there on the streets dealing with this chaos, on the rare occasions when he leaves his beachside mansions or the basement of the White House, Joe Biden is partying with billionaires and blaming the nation’s ills on a man who hasn’t been in office for more than three years. He should be prioritizing the need for a return to law and order. But neither Biden nor his handlers have any time for that. They need to focus on destroying the Bad Orange Man and flying more illegal aliens into every city in the nation. Joe Biden has been an epic failure as a president and in this moment of crisis, he is performing exactly as we should have expected. He is completely missing in action.