White House Commends ‘Admirable’ Students Protecting American Flag
White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says deploying the Nationwide Guard ‘is one thing that governors determine on.’
The White Home praised the actions of UNC-Chapel Hill fraternity brothers on Might 3 for shielding the American flag from protestors trying to tear it down and change it with a Palestinian flag.
“All People have the suitable to peacefully protest,” mentioned White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who deemed it “admirable” to guard the flag. “It’s not proper to forcefully forcefully take down the American flag to interchange it with one other flag. It’s not proper.”
The White Home additionally affirmed the place taken by President Joe Biden in his Might 2 tackle on the continued pro-Palestine protests on school campuses, particularly that whereas the administration stays dedicated to the rule of legislation, it additionally opposes the concept of activating the Nationwide Guard.
“That’s one thing that governors determine on,” Ms. Jean-Pierre mentioned of deploying the Nationwide Guard. She additionally mentioned that it’s the universities and faculties that determine whether or not or not police presence is the suitable option to transfer ahead.
“We have now to observe the rule of legislation,” she mentioned. “Violence isn’t protected right here. However People have the suitable to peacefully, peacefully protest throughout the legislation, and we’re going to be very constant right here.”
‘Biden’s Vietnam’?
Ms. Jean-Pierre repeated a number of instances in the course of the day’s press briefing that the White Home acknowledged that “it’s an extremely charged time” and a “charged setting.”
One reporter identified that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) lately likened the present “charged” time to that in 1968 when school college students had been up in arms protesting Vietnam and the then-Democratic President Lyndon Johnson.
“I’m pondering again, and different individuals are making this reference that this can be Biden’s Vietnam,” Mr. Sanders instructed CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Might 2, referring to President Biden’s reelection marketing campaign.
When requested for the White Home’s response to the feedback, Ms. Jean-Pierre began by saying, “I wish to be tremendous cautious as a result of that’s type of main right into a marketing campaign house.”
“Joe Biden ended the longest battle in American historical past and succeeded in convincing each events in Congress to make essential investments in our nationwide safety and Ukraine to assist guarantee we received’t be drawn into battle in Europe,” she mentioned.
“And that’s the president’s management that you just’ve seen, proper and that is among the causes he’s been in a position to deliver NATO collectively in a means that we now have not seen earlier than.”
Ms. Jean-Pierre went on to record an array of President Biden’s actions over the past three years, from taking motion towards anti-Semitism and ensuring the “wealthy” pay their “fair proportion” to attempting to cancel scholar debt and tackling “Massive Pharma” and, constructing “an financial system that helps everybody.”
“These agendas are extremely fashionable, and so he’s going to proceed to try this work,” she mentioned.
When requested outright if the White Home disagreed with that characterization, she mentioned, “They’ve their opinions, and so they’re allowed to their opinions and—and we respect—we respect with their opinions on this.”