Washington CNN — President Joe Biden on Thursday attempted to balance the right to free speech and his desire for law and order in his first extensive remarks on campus protests against the war in Gaza – but insisted he has not changed his support for Israel.
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“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said. “… Peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues.”
“But,” Biden added, “neither are we a lawless country.”
Destroying property, Biden said, “is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancelation of classes and graduation – none of this is a peaceful protest,” the president said. “Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”
Biden said dissent “is essential to democracy” but that it “must never lead to disorder, or to denying the rights of others.”
