Emhoff calls Columbia University leaders amid campus unrest

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff held private calls with two Jewish community leaders at Columbia University earlier this week, as the college grappled with its response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

The calls with Rabbi Elie Buechler, who directs the school’s Orthodox Union-Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, and Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia’s chapter of Hillel, focused largely on addressing antisemitism, a White House official said.

“The Second Gentleman recognized that while every American has the right to freedom of speech and to protest peacefully, hate speech and calls for violence against Jews is both antisemitic and unacceptable,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations.

Emhoff, the nation’s most prominent Jewish official, also emphasized that “no student should feel unsafe on campus and offered his support on behalf of the Administration."

The private outreach, which has not been previously reported, represents the Biden administration’s highest-level contact with Columbia since the protests began. It comes amid growing demands for the White House to do more to address a student movement that has expanded to hundreds of campuses, prompting allegations of antisemitism as well feeding concerns over an outsized response from law enforcement.

In recent days, the protests have swept across the nation, prompting Republicans to call for harsh crackdowns led by the National Guard. The most dramatic standoff took place in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott cheered the use of police to break up and arrest demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin, saying that the protesters “belong in jail.”

Biden has not directly addressed the demonstrations since Monday, when he condemned "the antisemitic protests" but also "those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians."

After multiple requests for comment around the situation in Texas, the White House issued a statement to POLITICO on Thursday expressing broad support for "peaceful protests" but also denounced violent rhetoric and antisemitism. White House officials declined to directly address Abbott's actions in Texas, and have offered little insight into how the administration is managing the demonstrations nationwide.

“Hate speech, violent rhetoric, antisemitic remarks and targeting people for who they are is abhorrent,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said. “Peaceful protests of policies are part of our freedom as Americans, and we have said many times that people have the right to disagree and disagree strongly with the war.”

Taken together, the administration's private outreach to Jewish leaders and limited public involvement illustrate how Biden is trying to balance his steadfast support for the Jewish community with acknowledgment of voters' deep anger over the war in Gaza.

The approach has largely relegated the president to the sidelines as the situation on campuses reaches a fever pitch, insulating him from the volatile politics surrounding the protests but also heightening fears among some allies that Biden is missing a critical opportunity to ease religious tensions.

“The White House just isn’t understanding the depth of it," said James Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute. "They continue to think it’s going to just blow away.”

Biden officials have justified their arm's-length approach to the protests over the last week by casting them as individual issues for administrators and local officials to address. They've also downplayed the broader impact on the presidential race, citing polling showing that most young voters are more concerned about issues like the economy and health care.

But some Democrats worry that the White House is committing a serious misstep by failing to step in, leaving a leadership vacuum at least in public that Republicans have eagerly filled with heated rhetoric and calls for the National Guard.

In the meantime, they say, Biden's reluctance to address the significance of the protests threatens to deepen the backlash against him among voters outraged over U.S. support for Israel.

“Where they’re coming from is somewhere between not wanting to deal with it and showing they’re supportive of the Jewish community,” Wa’el Alzayat, the CEO of Muslim advocacy group Emgage, said of the White House's view of the protests. "But [Biden's] embroiled in it. It's not their decision. Their decision was, we're going to support Israel to the hilt."

Emgage plans to issue a call this week for the White House to express public support for the students' right to protest, a move prompted by growing irritation that the administration has not more forcefully pushed back on Republican efforts to portray the protests as wholly antisemitic.

During a visit to Columbia on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to call Biden directly to demand that he take action as protestors shouted him down, calling the situation on campus “dangerous.”

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

Later that afternoon, police were dispatched to the University of Texas at Austin, where they made dozens of arrests. One video of a local journalist being thrown to the ground and arrested went viral, prompting widespread criticism of the response. Abbott celebrated the crackdown in a post on X, calling the protest antisemitic and advocating for students at any college participating in pro-Palestinian protests to be expelled.

Several Democrats have since rebuked Abbott, arguing the move amounted to suppression of free speech. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who represents parts of Austin, blasted Abbott for using the protests as "just another welcome opportunity for personal political gain."

But he also took aim at Biden over his broader Middle East policy, echoing arguments from progressives and Palestinian advocates that the turmoil on campuses is an outgrowth of the White House's unwillingness to take a harder line against Israel and its war in Gaza.

"President Biden had made clear his strong rejection of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campuses or anywhere else," Doggett said. "What we need from President Biden is for him to stand up to Netanyahu and stop sending offensive weapons for the assault on Rafah."

Among Muslim and Palestinian American leaders, there is growing concern that Biden will instead dial back his criticism of Israel in an effort to further distance himself from the protests — and related accounts of antisemitic incidents. In response to a question about the protests, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday pointed reporters back to a statement the White House issued Sunday condemning antisemitism and emphasizing that "it has absolutely no place on college campuses."

Yet as the demonstrations spread across the country and even to schools overseas, Democrats focused on the issue warned that the situation is only likely to grow more combustible — potentially forcing Biden to take a more prominent role in navigating his party through this politically delicate moment.

"They're passionate about this and they're not going away," Zogby said of the student protesters, contending that at this point, only a change in Biden's stance toward Israel would quell the campus movement. "This is the kind of stuff that eats away at your ability to hold a coalition together."

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.