Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that the FBI should be focused on the “radical left,” not the right, in light of the anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian campus protests happening around the country.
Speaking in front of the New York courthouse where he is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records, the Republican presidential candidate commended the police departments in New York and Los Angeles for breaking up campus occupations at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA 🚨: CHP has taken control of about 90% of the encampment area, mass arrests made of those who remained behind. A last stand is looking to unfold with makeshift barriers and remaining protestors. pic.twitter.com/pkoLExV7I1
— Anthony Cabassa (@AnthonyCabassa_) May 2, 2024
“Just so you understand, this is the radical left. This is a movement from the left, not from the right. The right is not your problem, despite what law enforcement likes to say,” Trump told reporters.
He brought up FBI Director Christopher Wray’s pronouncements about the dangers of right-wing extremism.
“The FBI director said that he worries about the right,” the former president said. “Don’t worry about the right, the right’s fine. Worry about the left, because this is a movement from the left.
“These are radical left lunatics, and they’ve got to be stopped now, because it’s going to go on and on, and it’s going to get worse and worse.”
Trump warned these are the types of movements that take over countries.
Do you agree the FBI should focus on the radical left?
“And we’re not letting them take over the U.S.A. We’re not letting the radical left morons take over this country. You can’t let that happen,” he said.
“The law enforcement and the people at DOJ, instead of going after Donald Trump, they ought to look at what’s happening at their own offices, because you’re loaded up with radical left people that want this country to fail, and we’re not going to let this country fail,” the former president reiterated.
The comments start around the 3:15 mark in the video below:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re not letting the Radical Left morons take over this country! pic.twitter.com/wPFjCKIuvz
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 2, 2024
President Joe Biden, after several days of not forcefully addressing the issue, spoke from the White House on Thursday, saying, “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to chaos.”
“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law,” Biden said. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest.
“Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people, is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”
President Biden on college campus protests: “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to chaos.” pic.twitter.com/wtmvjOrLWH
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 2, 2024
On April 22, Biden repeated a reporter’s question back to her regarding the protests, saying he does condemn “anti-Semitic protests” but adding, “I also condemn those that don’t know what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
The White House had released a similar on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand statement the day before, April 21.
On April 23, when asked by NBC News anchor Lester Holt whether the FBI was monitoring the campus protests, Wray responded, “We don’t monitor protests, but we do share intelligence about specific threats of violence with campuses, with state and local law enforcement.”
Last week, 27 Republican senators — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Shelly Moor Capito of West Virginia, Katie Britt of Alabama, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Marco Rubio of Florida — sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Attorney General Merrick Garland urging them to use their authority to “restore order and protect Jewish students” on college campuses.
They noted multiple federal laws have been violated by the protesters, including those against discrimination and espousing support for terrorism.
Sen. Katie Britt slams Biden’s Secretary of Education Cardona for ongoing antisemitic protests at Universities: “I’m afraid this administration is not learning the lessons from the past. It wasn’t ok to do that in the 1960’s. The Biden administration is failing the American… pic.twitter.com/hwm3sFz5GS
— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) April 30, 2024
Concerning Trump’s charge that Wray is wrongfully focusing his efforts on the right, the FBI director testified before Congress in March 2021, two months after the Capitol incursion, that his bureau had seen no evidence that left-wing actors had taken part in the attack, The Washington Post reported.
When asked whether “right-wing white supremacist groups played an instrumental role” in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Wray said they played a significant part.
“Is there any doubt that the people who stormed the Capitol included white supremacists and other far-right extremist organizations?” Sen. Christopher Coons of Delaware later asked him.
“There’s no doubt that it included individuals that we would call militia violent extremists and in some instances, individuals that were racially motivated violent extremists who advocate for, you know, the superiority of the white race,” Wray answered. “But the militia violent extremists is probably at the moment trending the biggest bucket, if you will.”
On Tuesday, Trump questioned whether the anti-Israel demonstrators who broke into an academic building at Columbia University and occupied it would get the same treatment that the Jan. 6, 2021, defendants have received.
“Because they’re doing a lot of destruction, a lot of damages, a lot of people getting hurt very badly,” he said.
“I wonder if that’s going to be the same kind of treatment they gave J6,” the former president said. “Let’s see how that all works out.
“I think I can give the answer right now. And that’s why people have lost faith in our court system.”
An hour ago at @Columbia University:
Pro Hamas students smashed the glass doors into Hamilton Hall inside Columbia, occupying the building, barricading doors with metal gates, blocking entrances with wooden tables and chairs, and zip-tying doors shut.
Watch: one of the students… pic.twitter.com/h5qpHcpgsx
— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) April 30, 2024
The Biden Department of Justice has been aggressively prosecuting those involved with the 2021 Capitol incursion, based on investigations conducted by the FBI.
At a briefing in January, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said there had been nearly 900 prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants, the majority for nonviolent offenses.
He said thousands of people who merely entered the Capitol grounds, but not the building itself, were still eligible to be charged.
