Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) agreed with some of his colleagues in the Senate that federal funding for universities allowing antisemitic protesters on its campuses is “a top-of-mind issue.”
Hagerty appeared Saturday on Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street to react to reports that 2,000 college students were arrested on campuses in their pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Some were charged with misdemeanors such as trespassing, while others stand accused of assaulting police officers. Videos have come out from some of these protesters revealing antisemitic themes in their chants and signage.
“We just passed through a massive appropriation package,” Hagerty said. “We’ll be looking at the next steps right away. In fact, it’s coming up over the course of the next several weeks. This is a top-of-mind issue for most of the senators. It’s even a bipartisan concern. We’ve got to address this. The campuses have really just let things run wild.”
Extreme demonstrations tend to happen every presidential election cycle, according to the senator. Hagerty pointed to the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Black Lives Matter riots as examples.
“The college campuses have become a hotbed of discriminatory behavior, of violence,” Hagerty said. “You’ve seen all of the arrests. The American public are deeply concerned about it. Certainly, those of us in the Senate are concerned about it, too. I think it’s a manifestation of this ‘DEI initiative’ that’s gone way over the top. Now they’ve got these young people being indoctrinated in terms of this notion of someone is either oppressed or an oppressor. … It’s got to come to an end. That’s why you’ve seen the frustration coming from the Senate.”
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Hagerty is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees all spending of Treasury funds. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is the chairwoman, and her state is in the minority in that there have not been reports of any student arrests at a pro-Palestinian protest.
This follows Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and others calling for the end to funding for universities that have not done enough to condemn student protesters. McConnell is the only other member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.