Ahead of entering Manhattan court on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump slammed anti-Israel protests raging on college campuses as a “disgrace” while pinning blame on President Biden.
“What’s going on at the college level … Columbia, NYU and others is a disgrace. And it’s really on Biden,” Trump said Tuesday morning outside the courtroom.
“He’s got the wrong words. He doesn’t know who he’s backing. And it’s a mess. And if this were me, they’d be after me, they’d be after me so much, but they’re trying to get him a pass. And what’s going on is a disgrace to our country. And it’s all Biden’s fault, and everybody knows it. He’s got no message, he’s got no compassion and doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Trump continued, adding Biden is the “worst president in the history of our country.”
Antisemitism has intensified on the campuses of some of the country’s most elite universities in recent days, including protesters on Columbia’s campus saying Jewish students were Hamas’s “next targets” amid ongoing demonstrations. More than 100 students were arrested on Columbia’s campus last week, while dozens more were arrested on Yale’s and NYU’s campuses this week. Some students have also established encampments on campus demanding their schools completely divest from Israel.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan criminal court in New York, US, on Monday, April 15, 2024. Jury selection beings Monday in Trumps criminal trial where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to silence claims of extramarital sexual encounters during his 2016 presidential campaign. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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A rabbi at Columbia even warned Jewish students to leave campus due to the antisemitism, while a professor at the university told Fox Digital this weekend that anti-Israel campus groups have morphed into becoming an “actual terror organization” during the recent protests.
Anti-Israel agitators construct an encampment on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Monday, April 22, 2024. The university announced that all classes would be held virtually today in response to the ongoing demonstrations on campus. (Peter Gerber)
“Al-Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now,” protesters on Columbia’s campus were seen chanting over the weekend, referring to the military wing terrorist organization Hamas.
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Biden and the White House has condemned the protests, including on Monday when he came under fire for equating the antisemitic protests with people who “don’t understand” the Palestinians.
Anti-Israel agitators construct an encampment on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Monday, April 22, 2024. The university announced that all classes would be held virtually today in response to the ongoing demonstrations on campus. (Peter Gerber)
“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden told reporters Monday.
Trump continued in his comments Tuesday that Biden is “no friend of Israel” or the “Arab world.”
Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower on his way to Manhattan criminal court, Monday, April 15, 2024, in New York. The hush money trial of former President Donald Trump begins Monday with jury selection. It’s a singular moment for American history as the first criminal trial of a former U.S. commander in chief. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“It all starts with Joe Biden. The signals he puts out are so bad. And I can tell you he’s no friend of Israel, that’s for sure. And he’s no friend of the Arab world either,” Trump said Tuesday morning outside the courtroom.
President Joe Biden was recently grilled by The Washington Post for all the embellished stories he has told audiences over his career. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He wants to take like a middle ground. And oftentimes that doesn’t work, but it’s certainly not working here. But what he’s done to Israel is abandon them, and he’s trying to be as nice as he can to the other side,” Trump continued.
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The 45th president is in Manhattan for the second week of his trial involving 34 counts of allegedly falsifying business records in the first degree. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo makes opening statements as former U.S. President Donald Trump watches with his attorney Todd Blanche before Justice Juan Merchan during Trump’s criminal trial on charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan state court in New York City, U.S. April 22, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
The charges were brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in connection to Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen paying former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 ahead of the 2016 election to allegedly quiet her claims of an extramarital affair. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.
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Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with an intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony.
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The case kicked off in earnest on Monday, after the court spent last week selecting and seating 12 jurors and six alternates to the panel. Tuesday will include a hearing on the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt for violating a gag order, which bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials, as well as continued testimony for the trial’s first witness, former media publisher David Pecker.