GOP candidates denounce ‘scourge’ of antisemitism on college campuses

Multiple Republican presidential candidates during Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate called for the deportation of foreign students supporting Hamas in the wake of Israel’s war against the terror group when asked to weigh in on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.

“What do you say to Jewish students on college campuses who feel unsafe given the dramatic rise in antisemitism? And what do you say to university presidents and college presidents who have not met the moral clarity moment to forcefully condemn Hamas terrorism?” Matthew Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Jewish Policy Center, asked the five candidates onstage in Miami. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the top polling candidate participating in the forum, noted that he was the first GOP White House contender to call for the deportation of terrorist-sympathizing foreign students on the campaign trail.

“If you are here on a student visa as a foreign national [and] you’re making common cause with Hamas, I’m canceling your visa and I’m sending you home. No questions asked,” the Florida governor vowed. 

DeSantis went on to suggest that President Biden “should have the Department of Justice on these college campuses” investigating potential civil rights violations happening against Jewish students, and he slammed the White House for announcing an initiative to combat Islamophobia amid the harassment of Jewish students on college campuses across the country.

“I already acted in Florida,” DeSantis said. “We had a group – Students for Justice in Palestine – they said they are common cause with Hamas, they said we’re not just in solidarity, this is what we are. We deactivated them, we’re not going to use state tax dollars to fund jihad. No way.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) also called for the deportation of students on visas supporting Hamas and added that he would strip colleges and universities of federal funding if they continue to allow antisemitic protests to happen. 

“Let me just say to every single university president in America, federal funding is a privilege not a right,” Scott said.

“Any campus that allows for antisemitism and hate, to allow students to encourage terrorism, mass murder and genocide, you should lose your federal funding today, period,” he added. 

Scott also touted his efforts to combat antisemitism through several pieces of federal legislation, which he has introduced since 2017.  

“We must force the people off those campuses and out of our country,” Scott said on Hamas-supporting students on visas. 

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for a national “soul search” to “remember what we are about.”

“Let me remind you something, Hamas said ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America.’ They hate and would kill you too,” Haley said in a response directed at Hamas-supporting students. 

“That’s not the values of America. That’s not us. We’re better than that. We don’t need to celebrate terrorists. We don’t need to celebrate genocide. We don’t need to celebrate violence towards anybody,” she added. 

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy distinguished himself from his rivals with his answer, calling for “leadership not censorship” of college students holding antisemitic views – which he called a “scourge” and a sign of a “deeper cancer” in the country. 

“Leadership means fill that void with purpose and meaning,” Ramaswamy argued. “Dilute this wokeism and antisemitism to irrelevance.” 

“These kids, they have no idea what the heck they’re even talking about,” he added. “When they’re siding with Hamas over Israel, they are fools.”

Ramaswamy cautioned that “if we go the direction of Ron DeSantis, or Nikki Haley” other types of views could be censored on college campuses as well. 

“Mark my words, soon they will say if you question a vaccine and its side effects you’re a bioterrorist. Soon they will say that if you show up at a school board meeting, you’re a domestic terrorist. Soon if they say that J6 prisoners should be released, you’re an insurrectionist terrorist. So that’s where this road ends.” 

“We don’t quash this with censorship because that creates a worst underbelly. We quell it through leadership by calling it out,” he said, arguing that his position respects “our Constitution.”