TV host and Columbia Law School alum Dan Abrams says he’s “ashamed” of the anti-Israel protests being allowed to close down the campus.
“As a graduate of Columbia University Law School, I am ashamed, I’m embarrassed, by what I’m seeing on that campus and now on other campuses,” the Mediaite owner, 57, said in opening his NewsNation show Tuesday.
Abrams added that he “wholeheartedly” supported the mass arrest of over 100 protesters at the school last week – days after calling the protesters “anti-Semitic thugs” leaving “an ugly stain for all students and graduates of a once prominent University.”
Abrams said he was disgusted by how the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and its supporters had disrupted campus life.
Following nearly a week of protests, the university announced that students would finish the spring semester with hybrid classes.
“Hundreds of professors walked out saying they wanted to show solidarity with the students. I think they should get fired for walking out on their jobs if they left,” Abrams insisted.
He also slammed remarks from a Columbia Law professor who supposedly said the encampment was “‘not any different from everyday life on campus.’”
“It’s not any different from everyday life on campus? Except now the school has to go remote for the rest of the semester,” Abrams scoffed.
“When you decide to protest on private property, you still have to abide by certain rules. You aren’t just entitled to take over the campus because you believe your cause is righteous,” he added.
“This isn’t normal, all right? But putting aside the students, the professors who have joined the student protesters should know better. And by the way, this is exposing them as the extremists that they are,” he lamented.
Abrams’ remarks came a few hours before Columbia President Minouche Shafik capitulated to the protesters and extended the initial Wednesday midnight deadline for them to disperse by 48 hours.
Shafik is now facing calls to resign from both protesters furious about her decision to allow NYPD to arrest 108 demonstrators last week and from those who believe she is failing to protect Jewish students.
