Biden Slammed for Being 'Authoritarian' After Protest Comments

President Joe Biden on Thursday broke his silence on the ongoing campus protests in the United States, resulting in criticism from a number of pro-Palestinian voices.

Pro-Palestinian protests and encampments have spread across the nation after seemingly being inspired by actions of students at New York City's Columbia University, extending to institutions such as George Washington University, Fordham University, the University of Alabama, Yale, Harvard, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Texas at Austin.

As the demonstrations have grown, arrests have occurred from members of large crowds protesting for or against the cause—which has included individuals calling for an immediate ceasefire from Israel's military in Gaza and many denouncing Biden's support for Israel.

On Thursday, Biden condemned acts of violence committed by protesters, saying, "There is a right to protest, but not a right to cause chaos."

While the president said peaceful protest is "in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues," he made it clear that "violent protest is not protected."

"Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It's against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations, none of this is a peaceful protest," Biden said. "Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest."

Andre Damon, writer and editor for the World Socialist Web Site, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), that "Biden's statement that 'dissent must never lead to disorder' is a fundamentally authoritarian statement."

"The banning of protest in the guise of preventing 'disruption' of 'public order' is the stock in trade of every dictatorship," Damon wrote.

Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah also took exception with the same line from Biden's speech, writing on X that "Biden has the audacity to give that speech that protest shouldn't lead to disorder—while planning to speak at Morehouse's commencement—Martin Luther King Jr.'s alma mater." [Ed. Note: Biden is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at Morehouse College, where King is an alumnus.]

"MLK spoke about white moderates more devoted to order than to justice," Attiah, who has written in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza, said.

Joshua P. Hill, a nonprofit worker and writer who frequently posts messages in support of pro-Palestinian protests, called the president's speech "one-sided, dishonest" in a X post, while journalist Wajahat Ali called the speech "tone deaf."

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email on Thursday night for comment.

Not everyone on social media criticized the president's speech, however. Popular X user Brooklyn Dad Defiant posted a clip of Biden's comments and cited a 1963 sit-in of Black people at a segregated diner as a "completely non-violent" protest that was "extremely effective."

The American Jewish Committee also praised Biden's speech, writing on X: "Thank you, @POTUS Biden, for making it clear that the right to protest does not include the right to threaten and intimidate Jews."