J.D. Vance slams encampment protesters, calls for schools to 'just enforce the law'
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance recently critiqued anti-Israel student protesters at Columbia University, accusing them of harassing their fellow students.
'Nobody gets a right to set up 10 encampments and turn their college campuses into garbage dumps,' he told Laura Ingraham.
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance recently critiqued anti-Israel student protesters at Columbia University, accusing them of harassing their fellow students.
Vance made the comments on Sept. 3 during an interview with Laura Ingraham of Fox News.
“Nobody gets the right to harass their fellow students,” Vance said during the segment. “Nobody gets a right to set up 10 encampments and turn their college campuses into garbage dumps.”
Vance also rebuked demonstrators around the nation who have blocked other students—particularly Jewish students—from walking around campus, including to their classes.
“And nobody gets the right to block their fellow students from attending class,” Vance continued. “This isn’t rocket science.”
During the interview, Vance advocated enforcing university policies against anti-Israel students who discriminate against Jewish students.
“Whether it’s anti-Jewish bigotry or any other form of bigotry, just enforce the law,” Vance said. “Make the crazy people protest within the First Amendment and within the legal frameworks that are appropriate, and so, as long as you do that, these college campuses are going to be fine.”
Campus Reform has reported about anti-Israel protests at Columbia’s campus in New York City, including one on Sept. 3 during which demonstrators vandalized a statue at the university’s Morningside Heights location.
“The first day of classes at Columbia University are drenched in blood,” a pro-Palestinian group posted online in the wake of the vandalism. “Protests are continuing against the school’s financial support for the zionist entity & repression of anti-zionist voices amid genocide. These photos show the Alma Mater statue at the library covered in paint.”
“This action is the first of many,” the group continued. “We will not stop until the university fully divests from all forms of settler-colonial violence.”
Campus Reform also reported in August about a federal judge’s ruling that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) cannot allow Jewish students to be “excluded” from portions of campus, and that the university’s decision to allow such exclusion was “unimaginable” and “abhorrent.”
“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” Judge Mark Scarsi wrote. “This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith.”
In his remarks to Ingraham, Vance also stated that there is a distinction between freedom of speech and harassment of one’s fellow students, and argued that the former should be allowed but not the latter.
“Just stop it. Enforce the law,” he added. “Let everybody speak their mind, but do it without harassing your fellow students. It’s not hard.”
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
