New York governor slams Speaker Johnson for 'politicizing' Columbia protests

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, accusing him of politicizing the unrest at Columbia University while visiting the campus.

Anti-Israel protests at Columbia University have been going on for a full week, and have resulted in more than 100 arrests. Protesters have chanted pro-Hamas slogans during the protests, and threatened Jewish students. The protests have prompted the university to offer students the possibility of finishing their courses remotely.

Johnson visited the campus on Wednesday afternoon to meet with Jewish students, which came after he called for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign over the protests. But Hochul argued that Johnson’s visit and comments are sowing more division than unity.

“I think politicizing this and bringing the entourage to put a spotlight on this is only adding to the division,” Hochul told reporters, Politico reported. “A speaker worth the title should really be trying to heal people and not divide them, so I don’t think it adds to anything.”

Hochul said Johnson’s time would be better spent working back in Washington D.C. to come up with a border deal that would stem the flow of illegal immigrants. Outside of cities on the border, New York City has been one of the most impacted the immigration crisis, receiving more than 150,000 asylum seekers since the spring of 2022. 

“It seems to me there’s a lot more responsibilities and crises to be dealt with in Washington,”  Hochul said. “I’d encourage the speaker to go back and perhaps take up the migrant bill, the bill to deal with closing the borders, so we can deal with the real crisis that New York has.”

Johnson’s office said the speaker visited the campus because New York leaders were not doing enough to end the protests, and school officials were not protecting their Jewish students.

“Speaker Johnson is going to speak to students at Columbia University because Governor Hochul and other officials in New York have completely failed in their duty to protect Jewish students and combat the rise of antisemitism in their party,”  Athina Lawson, a spokesperson from the speaker’s office, told Politico. “We wish it weren’t necessary.”

Hochul also visited the campus on Monday.