Representative D’Esposito Tells Newsmax: Strong Measures Needed to Address Columbia Protests

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., criticized the ongoing protests at Columbia University on Saturday, calling for tough action and urging President Minouche Shafik to resign.

“What we need to see here in the next few days is we need to see the president of Colombia resign. Enough is enough. She’s negotiating with people who are being praised by terrorists. Wednesday morning, Hamas put out an endorsement of the protests that are going on at Columbia University,” he said on Newsmax TV’s “Saturday Report.”

“She’s trying to rationalize with irrational people,” he added. “She needs to grow a backbone. She needs to show some leadership skills. She needs to realize that she’s supposed to be running one of the finest educational or what was one of the finest educational institutions in the world.”

D’Esposito, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, also expressed concern about possible nefarious investment in the protests, stating, “Well, I think it’s ridiculous, and it doesn’t take a decorated New York City detective to realize that someone’s investing in all of these protesters. I mean, when you look at the quad and 95% of the tents are exactly the same? Clearly, this is organized.”

He also suggested possible sources for the external funding, alleging, “We’ve read articles recently that the money is coming from [George] Soros and organizations just like that, and these are organizations that have fed into the United States the spewing of hatred, and that’s what we’re seeing on college campuses.”

Highlighting reports of harassment against students, D’Esposito emphasized the need for action, stating, “There’s a fine line between your right to free speech and your right to protest and making other students feel that they are not safe.”

“These are students that come from all over the world, as far as Germany, to be educated, and they talked about being spit on, being assaulted, being accosted, being told that all Jews should die, and they’ve reported this over the last few months, reported it to the administration, and it’s fallen on deaf ears,” he said.

Regarding continuing funding of colleges with federal dollars, D’Esposito emphasized Congress’s power to influence the situation, stating, “It’s the power of the purse. When you have federal dollars flowing into these college campuses, they don’t deserve the money. They shouldn’t get the money, and we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that it doesn’t happen anymore.”

He also questioned the logic of continuing to allow the presence of international students on college campuses who support designated terrorist organizations, stating:

“When you have kids using federal student aid to run around a college campus with shirts and college campus shirts and hats on that say, ‘I am Hezbollah. I am a Hamas;’ they don’t deserve the money. They shouldn’t get the money, and we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that it doesn’t happen anymore.”

He concluded by emphasizing bipartisan agreement on the need for action, stating, “I mean, you have both sides of the aisle agreeing that this needs to stop. When you’re telling students that they are no longer going to study on campus, they’re going to go remote because they are failing to keep these kids safe. That’s not what America is about.”

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