Speaker Johnson Credits Comer for George Washington University Cleanup

TAKING CREDIT FOR WHAT'S NOT DUE

By Charlie McCarthy | Wednesday, 08 May 2024 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., credited House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., for forcing Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to allow police to evict on-campus anti-Israel protesters and restore order at George Washington University.

Police began to clear a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the university early Wednesday, hours after dozens of protesters left the site and marched to President Ellen Granberg's home.

Bowser and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith were set to testify about the district's handling of the protest at a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing Wednesday afternoon, but Comer canceled the hearing after the police cleared the protest.

"Last week, we announced a House-wide crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses," Johnson said in a statement. "This week, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Committee delivered results by compelling Mayor Bowser to order police to clear the weeks-long, pro-Hamas and illegal encampments around George Washington University's campus.

"While it should not require threatening to haul D.C.'s mayor before Congress to keep Jewish students at George Washington University safe, I applaud Chairman Comer's steadfast leadership.

"Through the House-wide effort to crack down on antisemitism, we are going to learn why security forces and campus administrators have refused to do their first job: keeping students safe."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

College anti-Israel agitators could be sent to Gaza under new House GOP bill

'I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity,' says Rep Randy Weber

By Elizabeth Elkind Fox News
Published May 8, 2024

FIRST ON FOX: A new House Republican bill would send any person charged and convicted for illegal activity on a college campus to Gaza for at least six months.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced the bill on Wednesday alongside Reps. Randy Weber, R-Texas, and Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., in response to the ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses across the country.

Several of those protests have turned violent, with clashes between police and activists, as well as hundreds of activists being arrested across multiple campuses.


While Ogles' bill text does not mention Israel or the anti-Israel groups, it specifically targets unlawful activity on college campuses after Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants invaded Israel in a surprise attack that killed over 1,000 people.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA POLICE ARREST 25 ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS WHILE TRYING TO CLEAR ENCAMPMENT

Pro-Palestinian Jewish demonstrators are arrested and placed on NYPD buses during a Seder protest one block from Senator Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn home in New York on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

Those convicted would be forced to serve a minimum six-month community service sentence in Gaza, where Israel is currently waging a brutal campaign to eradicate Hamas and rescue the remaining Israelis that terrorists took hostage in October.

"Students have abandoned their classes to harass other students and disrupt campus-wide activities, including university commencement ceremonies nationwide. Enough is enough," Ogles told Fox News Digital.

"That’s why I introduced legislation to send any person convicted of unlawful activity on the campus of an American university since October 7th, 2023, to Gaza to complete a minimum of six months of community service."

ANTI-ISRAEL ORGANIZERS AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ISSUE NEW DEMAND AS CAMPUS TAKEOVER REACHES 13TH DAY

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is leading the new bill. (Getty Images)

Weber added, "If you support a terrorist organization, and you participate in unlawful activity on campuses, you should get a taste of your own medicine. I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity."

A new House Republican bill led by Rep. Andy Ogles would send any person charged and convicted for illegal activity on a college campus to Gaza for at least six months. (Getty Images)

The bill is likely to face uncertain odds in the House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin majority of just one seat. Even if it passed, the Democrat-controlled Senate will almost certainly ignore it.

It is an example, however, of the heightened tensions wracking the U.S. over Israel's war with Hamas.

Smoke billows after the Israeli army launched an airstrike on Al Mughraqa area in the Gaza Strip on April 14, 2024. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The college protests here have garnered bipartisan criticism from virtually all Republicans and a significant number of Democrats, but progressives have continued to show strong support for the students and other activists on campus.

Comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for example, referring to some Jewish students as "pro-genocide" have earned her a GOP-led censure resolution, filed by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., on Tuesday.

Her fellow "Squad" member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has also been censured for her comments about Israel in the wake of Oct. 7

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.