New York State's last Republican governor on Thursday condemned President Biden for his relative inaction on anti-Semitic protests surrounding the Empire State's college campuses and warned that Iran was using images of the chaos as propaganda.
Former Governor George Pataki, who left office in late 2006 following the election of Eliot Spitzer, told Fox News that the protests were “acts of lawlessness” at this point and should have been stopped as early as ” first day “.
“This is simply disgusting and should not be tolerated. These are not acts of free speech or protest,” he said on “The Story.”
“University administrators should have stopped him. They didn't. When they didn't, since they were clearly breaking the law, law enforcement – New York police York and others across the country – should have been called right away.”
Pataki, who earned his juris doctorate from Columbia Law in 1970, said he was on campus during the Vietnam War protests. However, he said he helped lead the anti-protester faction.
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi (Majid Saeedi/Getty)
“The longer this goes on, the more propensity for violence there is, so it should have been closed from day one,” he said of the unrest.
Near 137th Street and Broadway, protesters removed the American flag and waved the Palestinian banner at City College Tuesday evening. Pataki said the act should have been stopped in its tracks, praising Democratic Mayor Eric Adams for condemning the students who desecrated the Stars & Stripes in this way.
Adams told reporters that he was offended by the act because his uncle had died in service to the country and that he himself was very proud to be an American, stating: “We do not give up our way of life to person”.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Operations Kaz Daughtry was seen restarting Old Glory shortly after midnight Wednesday as his officers restored order on campus.
Conversely, Pataki criticized President Biden's relative silence on the protests, as the White House had instead relied primarily on spokespeople's statements and a brief phrase the president offered to a reporter during commemorating Earth Day in a federal park near MCB Quantico.
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Biden broke his silence on Thursday, condemning the violence that erupted and saying “order must prevail.”
“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or suppress dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protests are in the best tradition of how Americans respond to issues that arise But we are also not a lawless country. We are a civil society and order must prevail,” Biden said at the White House.
Pataki was unimpressed by Biden's remarks and said Iranian state television had broadcast footage of protests at Columbia, CCNY and other campuses in the United States.
“Al Jazeera broadcast them all over the Middle East,” he added. “It's damaging the peace process. It's empowering radicals like Hamas, and whether it's intentional or not on the part of these protesters, it's damaging the prospects for peace. It must be stopped. They should be stopped. .”
“They should be prosecuted and the students should be expelled,” Pataki added, as reported by the New York Post on Thursday. Iranian university offers scholarships to anti-Israel students expelled for participating in unrest.
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Shiraz University President Mohammad Moazzeni invited expelled students and dismissed professors to transfer to his school, located in Fars, Iran, the newspaper reported, citing Iranian state channel Press TV.
Meanwhile, at the University of Tehran, Professor Foad Izadi reportedly referred to the students as “our people” and said they would side with Iran in any direct conflict with the United States.