‘They Have the Same Message’: Democrat Who Toured Columbia Compares Pro-Palestinian Protesters to Charlottesville Neo-Nazis

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) joined CNN’s Abby Phillip to discuss the ongoing controversy surrounding the pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia’s campus in New York City following his tour of the campus on Monday.

Phillip introduced the Florida Democrat and noted he “toured the campus today along with several other Jewish House Democrats.”

“As we’re coming into this interview with you, Columbia announcing that they are going to close the campus to in-person classes until the end of the semester, which is scheduled to be next week. That’s a pretty extraordinary indictment of what is going on on that campus right now. My understanding is that you were there for part of the day today, and you had a pretty stark message that you think that there is a double standard when it comes to protecting Jewish communities from anti-Semitism. What makes you say that?” Phillip asked.

“Well. Thanks, Abby. Thanks for having me. Thanks for talking about this on the eve of Passover. So let me say a couple of things. First is I was at the, university today, and it’s clear to me that while they are establishing a perimeter outside the university, once inside the university, there is almost no security,” Moskowitz replied, adding:

They have completely lost control of the situation and are just letting it ride, which now you’ve confirmed, by this new policy that, they’re just going to try to run the clock out by going fully virtual the end of the year. I can tell you, between the students wearing masks and, going full virtual, bringing back the policies of Covid, it’s not going to slow the spread of anti-Semitism.

But I’ll tell you what I, what I meant when I said that on campus today, tonight at Passover, this was the conversation around the table. Families are together, extended families together. And what’s going on at Columbia and what they’re watching happen now at NYU as it spreads, just, you know, around the city, this is the conversation. And Jewish parents are asking this question because I talk to them, students who go to Columbia, the question they’re asking is they feel that if this was a minority group, a protected minority group, which Jews are not, they don’t think that this would have gotten past lunchtime on the first day. But for Jews, because we don’t fit in this box, even though there’s only 15 million of us, you know, in the country, you know, at the end of the day, you know, we’re looked at as differently.

And that’s why universities have struggled with this. Because, yes, while there is protected speech, free speech, hate speech is not protected. And we are well into the realm of hate speech, right? I mean, let’s just let’s just look at what’s happening. We were mad years ago when we saw Charlottesville, and ‘Jews will not replace us.’ And Donald Trump saying good people on both sides or Mexicans or rapists. Right? But somehow we don’t have the same anger of ‘Go back to Poland.’

My grandfather’s entire family was killed in Poland. He was the sole survivor. Right. ‘All Zionists should be killed. Bomb Tel Aviv.’ I know the people saying this aren’t, you know, white Aryan males with tiki torches, but they have the same message. These students that are participating in this, and it’s not all of them, but the students that are allowing this to go on with the Hamas flags, letting these people onto campus, the professors that are participating in this, it’s the same message, which is Jews are not welcome.

“Yeah. I mean, I think you raised such an important point, which is, maybe it’s not everyone, but if there are some people in the ranks doing that, should they be expelled? Should there be a willingness to do that? I wonder what you think about the university’s leadership in this moment. Do you think, as some of your Republican colleagues do, that, the Columbia president should actually resign as a result of how this has been handled?” followed up Phillip.

Moskowitz answered, “Well, I mean, listen, I don’t like guilt by association, but if I was participating in a protest and I was trying to do it peacefully, right? And my ‘cease-fire now’ protest became a ‘bomb Tel Aviv’ protest, maybe I would leave. Or if we were holding up the Palestinian flag and all of a sudden people started screaming pro-Hamas things. Maybe I would leave, but that’s not what happened, Abby. That’s not what happened. They were integrated, and it took five days for them to make a statement saying, ‘Oh, that’s not us.’ The only reason they made that statement is because they’re losing the narrative, because unfortunately, they’re being exposed.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.