President Joe Biden's response to ongoing pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses was recently compared to warnings issued about former President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner reposted a video on social media from a pro-Palestinian protest at Washington University in St. Louis, where police appeared to tackle a professor to the ground.
"The things that neoliberals say will happen under Trump are happening under Biden currently," Turner wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "It should alarm us all."
The video shared in the post showed what was called the beating of a professor amid ongoing similar pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses in the U.S.
"Shocking footage shows several officers at Washington University St. Louis beating a professor, slamming him, and dragging his limp body. SIUE history professor Steve Tamari is reportedly hospitalized with broken ribs and a broken hand," X user Prem Thakker, of The Intercept wrote in the post. "One doctor told him he's lucky to be alive."
In a statement on Monday, Washington University St. Louis Chancellor Andrew D. Martin responded to the protests on campus: "At WashU, we fully support free expression. We encourage our students to use their voices to speak up about issues they're passionate about. Our campus is a place for our community to advocate and debate, but to be clear, our expectation is that members of our community can protest and express their strongly held views with signs, chants, and speeches, so long as they don't resort to actions that cause harm."
In a post to X, the professor's wife, Sandra Tamari, said: "I was arrested at the Gaza encampment at Washington University in St. Louis on Sat. My husband, a 65-year old full professor at S Illinois Univ Edwardsville, was brutally beaten by police. Here is the video of his arrest. He's wearing the yellow jacket."
"Everything that occurred on Saturday is documented and clear for those who wish to see. @WUSTL used violence against its own students, faculty, staff and the community to maintain its complicity in genocide. We are undeterred and St Louis will continue to rise up for Palestine," Tamari said in another post.
Over the past several weeks, pro-Palestinian protests have taken place at campuses such as Columbia University, Northwestern University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
While speaking with Fox News' Hannity on Tuesday, spoke about the protests and took aim at Biden.
"Biden has to do something. Biden is supposed to be the voice of our country and it's certainly not much of a voice, it's a voice that nobody's heard," Trump said. "He's got the strengthen up and he's got to be heard."
Trump made similar comments while speaking to reporters outside a New York City courthouse earlier on Tuesday, saying "the Biden protests that are going on are horrible. It's all caused by him.
"He's gotta get out and make a statement because the colleges are being overrun in this country."
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said that Biden "condemns the use of the term 'intifada,' as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days," Reuters reported.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
