President Biden cast the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and his framing of former President Trump’s response, as the impetus for his 2020 White House run – but Biden now faces his own “Charlottesville moment.”
Biden has repeatedly and emphatically condemned the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 for spewing “antisemitic bile,” even saying the protests motivated his run for the White House last election cycle.
“In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime,” Biden said in 2019 of the riots when announcing his run for the White House against then-President Trump.
Flash forward to 2024, antisemitism is running rampant on the campuses of some of the country’s most elite universities, including protesters on Columbia’s campus saying Jewish students were Hamas’ “next targets” amid ongoing protests.
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President Biden speaks to the National Action Network convention remotely from the South Court Auditorium of the White House, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“Al-Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now,” protesters on the Ivy League campus chanted over the weekend, referring to the military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas.
They also chanted: “We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground” and “Hamas we love you. We support your rockets, too.”
The protests in Charlottesville in 2017, which played out across two days in August of that year, included White nationalists descending on the city who were met by hundreds of counter-protesters. The protests devolved into violence, including three deaths and dozens of injuries stemming from a car plowing through people and other attacks.
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The protests were condemned by both Republicans and Democrats as a hateful display of bigotry, including Trump at the time, who said in a statement that such protests and violence have “no place in America.”
Anti-Israel agitators construct an encampment on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump said in August of that year. Trump added days later in a press conference that he condemned the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence” and came under fire from Democrats for his remarks that there was “blame on both sides” and “very fine people, on both sides.”
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Former President Trump at a rally in Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Biden pointed to Trump’s comments as helping motivate him to run for the presidency.
“With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it,” Biden said in 2019 when announcing his candidacy.
Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate outside of Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)
Biden has repeatedly pointed to Charlottesville as a moment of shame for the nation, including on the fourth anniversary, when the White House released a statement saying the rally was a “battle for the soul of America was laid bare for all to see.”
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“The forces of hate and violence were summoned from the shadows as Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists descended on a historic American city. With torches in their hands and veins bulging from their necks, they spewed the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s and with the same beatings and bigotry we saw in Jim Crow America for nearly a century,” he said. Though Biden has repeatedly cited Charlottesville, he has come under criticism, as recently as five months ago, for not visiting the city following the protests.
“Charlottesville, Virginia,” were even the first two words Biden uttered when announcing his run for the White House.
Members of the Patriot Front march across Memorial Bridge in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Dec. 4, 2021, in Washington, D.C. The group broke off from the White nationalist group Vanguard America after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Biden is now facing his own “Charlottesville moment,” as protests rage on college campuses stretching from Yale to the University of California, Berkeley, as anti-Israel students set up encampments while demanding their schools completely divest from Israel.
Protests had spread across the nation in October of last year, when Hamas launched its first attacks against Israel, sparking war. They have since intensified, including this month.
Protests at Columbia University and other schools have intensified since October. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
A Columbia professor told Fox Digital over the weekend that anti-Israel campus groups have morphed into becoming an “actual terror organization,” citing the protester who was seen holding a sign reading, “Al-Qasam’s (sic) next targets” that pointed toward Jewish students. A rabbi on Columbia’s campus has warned Jewish students to leave campus due to the antisemitism.
“The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Buechler wrote to students over the weekend. “It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”
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More than 100 protesters were arrested on Columbia’s campus last week, while dozens more were arrested on Yale’s and NYU’s campus this week.
Biden on Monday reiterated his condemnation of the violent protests, while facing criticisms online that his remarks echoed what Trump said in 2017 of the Charlottesville riots.
“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.
Clashes at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“This sure sounds like he’s ACTUALLY saying there are very fine people on both sides,” OutKick founder Clay Travis said.
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“Joe Biden condemned what he called the ‘antisemitic bile’ of right-wing marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, and called it a ‘defining moment’ for America. Today we’re witnessing Charlottesville happening on the campus of Columbia University but Biden is silent. This is a defining moment for this presidency. Will he keep pandering to the antisemitic left or confront it the way he did the antisemitic right?” Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen tweeted.
Anti-Israel agitators block roadways outside of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on Monday, April 22, 2024. The protests are continuing after a week of demonstrations calling on the university to divest from military weapons manufacturers. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
American Spectator writer Nate Hochman noted, “I’m old enough to remember when ‘good people on both sides’ was evil and racist.”
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The Federalist’s editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway wrote, “President Biden says there are good people on both sides of October 7.”
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has openly supported Israel and condemned members of his own party for not doing the same, compared the protests unfolding on college campuses to Charlottesville.
Anti-Israel demonstrators on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)
“I fully agree with the White House – these ‘protests’ are antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous. Add some tiki torches and it’s Charlottesville for these Jewish students,” Fetterman tweeted as the Columbia protests intensified over the weekend.
Israel has become a lightning rod for the Democratic Party since October, with the party’s progressive faction, such as members of the Squad, coming under fierce condemnation from the Jewish community and conservatives for not taking harder stances against Hamas. Biden is even facing an “Abandon Biden” movement in battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, stemming from the president’s support of Israel during its war in Gaza. The movement calls Israel’s actions “genocide.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden campaign and the White House for comment on the matter Tuesday, but did not receive a response from either.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
