NEW YORK — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign over her handling of the Gaza protests and said the national guard may be needed to restore order, as he met with Jewish students feeling unsafe and targeted amid the campus unrest.

“My intention is to call President Biden after we leave here,” Johnson told reporters outside the campus library, “and share with him what we have seen with our own two eyes and demand that he take action. There is executive authority that is appropriate.”

“If this is not contained quickly, and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard. We have to bring order to these campuses,” he said.

University officials briefed the media after Johnson’s press conference, making clear Columbia is not requesting the National Guard.

Johnson first said Shafik should quit earlier in the day on the The Hugh Hewitt Show, a conservative radio talkshow.

“President Shafik has shown to be a very weak and inept leader,” Johnson said. “They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students. They’re expected to run for their lives and stay home from class. It’s just, it’s maddening.”

Amid growing concern about antisemitism, school officials and student protestors have been trying to hash out a brokered solution to end the campus antiwar tent encampment. Shafik had given a midnight Tuesday night deadline for demonstrators to shut down the encampment, whose organizers are demanding Columbia divest from Israel. That was extended 48 hours early Wednesday.

Johnson is the highest-ranking elected official to demand Shafik’s resignation, after several Republican lawmakers called for an end to her nascent tenure on Monday.

New York Reps. Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis and Anthony D’Esposito, and House Education Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, joined him on campus, where students have erected a week-long encampment to demand Columbia divest from Israel and reverse pro-Palestinian student and faculty discipline.

“Some of these kids who are protesting,” Johnson continued, “you and I both know the vast majority of them have no idea what they’re talking. They don’t know the facts. Some of them are denying that Oct. 7 even happened.”

...continued

©2024 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.