Holding universities accountable for rampant antisemitism is not an attack on free speech, but an encouragement of it, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said at the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) National Conservative Student Conference on Wednesday.
McMahon reflected on the historic late-July deal with Columbia University during a panel in Washington D.C. with former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Columbia University announced that it had to pay a $200 million fine, as well as $21 million to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to settle antisemitism allegations in exchange for the return of massive amounts of federal funding. The school’s deal with the Trump administration includes cracking down on antisemitism on campus and maintaining policies to keep protests peaceful. McMahon said:
You might be following some of the actions that the Department of Education has taken against some of the universities for their lack of protecting students on campus — primarily the antisemitism that we’ve seen across campuses where there were protests that were being held that prevented students going to class, where there were actually students at Columbia that were imprisoned in the library, and students on the outside banging on the windows of that library yelling ‘death to Jews,’ ‘death to Israel,’ sometimes ‘death to the United States’
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“The president campaigned on the fact that he was not going to allow, not only antisemitism on campus, but any sort of that kind of prejudicial treatment of students of any belief,” she continued, adding that the administration now has a “very solid deal with Columbia.” “But I was asked, and actually was accused, of perhaps shutting down free speech. I said, absolutely not. That is not what this is about.”
McMahon said she has specifically been asked about whether Palestinians should be able to protest on college campuses, to which she replied “absolutely.”
“But it has to be peaceful protest. And in the agreement with Columbia, it gives everyone the right to protest — but at particular times, at particular places. You can’t protest in the halls of some of the academic buildings to prevent other students from getting in there to study or in the library,” she explained. “You need to get permission to have a protest at times that are appropriate…and you cannot wear masks unless it is for a religious purpose or a health reason. But if you’re wearing a mask, then you have to have your student ID. If asked by a policeman or a patrol on campus, you have to temporarily take off that mask to show that you are who say you are, because we had so many outsiders coming in for these protests.”
“We had students who were hurt on campuses, faculty that were attacked on campuses. That’s not part of freedom of speech. That is violence,” she continued. “And we will actually investigate you for civil rights violations…and that’s what we’ve done. The penalties that have been put on those universities were for not protecting students’ rights and [not] having students feel safe on campus — so there’s a very big difference between the First Amendment and freedom of speech and the right to protest.”
“What we’re really trying to get universities to get back to…is being places where you have discussions and different opinions and debates…” she concluded. “…We have devolved from that, and students have to feel safe walking across campus.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
