Will Defunding Protesting Universities be Big GOP Issue in Fall?

Republican candidates may soon begin calling for a cutoff of federal funding for colleges and universities that tolerate and encourage protests against Israel.

That’s what Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, hinted at on Thursday morning.

He and his fellow Senate Republican leaders, Daines said, “made a full-throated condemnation of the antisemetism and the hate against Jewish people that is going on at campuses across the country.”

He added that “it’s reprehensible what is happening.”

Daines said that “one thing we could do is to stop the federal funding. Columbia [University] received $1.2 billion in federal funding last year, and UCLA nearly a billion dollars last year. The Ivy League schools are north of $500 to 700 million, not to mention all the philanthropy. Now, some philanthropists are saying they’re going to shut off donations if they don’t get this right.”

Speaking at a press breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Daines said that he and his fellow Republicans “would like to have some Democrats join us in full-throated condemnation.”

“These are the same institutions that promote diversity and inclusion,” he said, “except if you are a Jewish student and a Jewish professor. That’s hypocrisy! We need moral clarity about what’s going on on college campuses. It’s a dangerous moment in U.S. history. We must stand up firm with full-throated rebuke and condemnation of what is happening with the hate and the violence against these Jewish students and Jewish professors.”

Turning to politics, the NRSC chairman said he thought his “is going to be a problem for the Democrats. Whether this becomes a major issue in the fall remains to be seen … . We’ll wait and see.”

The American people, Daines emphasized, “Are just appalled at these images. I think we’ll see what happens as we approach the fall. This could be a big problem for Democrats in August in Chicago [at their national convention] but I’m guessing these same students who are pretty fired up right now on the campuses in May will be taking finals and going home pretty soon. And they’ll be back in the fall.

“This could be a big problem for Democrats in the fall.”

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.