Speaker Johnson: ‘Hamas Backed These Protests’ on Israel

(AP)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., traveled to Columbia University on Wednesday, along with several other GOP lawmakers, to meet with Jewish students and to deliver a speech amidst the ongoing pro-Palestine protest on campus, a protest he said was “backed” by Hamas.

Johnson, speaking to CNN on Wednesday evening after his visit to Columbia, said that he was “not surprised” by the response he received from students, who began heckling him soon after he began delivering his remarks, saying, “They didn’t welcome our visit because we’re calling out their activities.”

And he questioned whether the protesters understand what they’re protesting for.

“I felt it was very important for that voice to be heard, not just about what happens in Columbia, but about what is happening right now around the country,” Johnson said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. “We have to stand unequivocally for the right and the good and I’m calling on all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this, not to endorse it, not to coddle these people, but to say this has to stop.

“Hamas backed these protests at Columbia. The things that have happened at the hands of Hamas are horrific, and yet these protestors are out there waving flags for the very people who committed those crimes.

“This is not who we are in America.”