Biden says dissent must not lead to disorder and his support for Israel remains unwavering amid college protests | CNN Politics

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.”

    • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      We'll have co-dictators, one Republican and one Democrat, to keep things bipartisan after elections are indefinitely suspended

      • NewLeaf
        ·
        7 months ago

        I'm surprised nobody's floated a trump/Biden unity ticket yet

        • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          7 months ago

          It'd be a hard sell, tbh. Despite having a lot in common, their followers think the other is the worst thing possible.

          • NewLeaf
            ·
            7 months ago

            I could see libs eating it up somehow. They're really good at rationalizing being nice to Nazis. If Ron desantis was teed up to beat Biden in November, I bet they would be rehabilitating trump right now.

            • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              7 months ago

              If only Harry Potter or another franchise popular with the worst libs had something like Dragon Ball, where the previous villain joins up with the heroes to fight the new bigger villain lol

    • Teekeeus
      ·
      edit-2
      17 days ago

      deleted by creator

    • Maoo [none/use name]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Anti-leftness was always the impetus for the previous bipartisan regime.

      It's no accident that, "okay we can fight" happened immediately after the fall of the USSR.

      We've got a new cold war and a new domestic left and whaddaya know suddenly it's urgent to fight "the enemy" during peacetime and to crack down on those pesky protesters at home.