President Biden speaks in unscheduled remarks on college campuses Thursday before leaving for events in North Carolina.
The president’s remarks come as pro-Palestinian protests have taken place on college campuses across the country, leading to the dismantling of encampments at some schools by police and arrests.
More than 100 people were arrested Wednesday evening at the University of California, Los Angeles, after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave and about 24 hours later counter-protesters attacked tent encampment on campus.
The chaotic night at UCLA came after arrests in New York at Columbia University and City College.
The White House has condemned violence and anti-Semitic rhetoric at some protests, while saying students have the right to protest peacefully. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre left the decisions and consequences of the protests to university presidents.
“They have the right to demonstrate peacefully as long as it is within the law and it is peaceful,” Jean-Pierre said during Wednesday’s press briefing. “Taking back a building by force is not peaceful. It’s simply not.”
The president is heading to Charlotte then Wilmington.
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