Last week the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it was cancelling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University.
It was withholding the funds because of the university’s "inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students," the GSA said in a joint statement with the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
This should have been met with universal approval, but it wasn’t.
The GSA indicated that the $400 million in cancelled federal grants and contracts would come out of $5 billion in grants committed to Columbia. An argument for another day might be why taxpayers are giving a private university $5 billion.
The DOJ said the administration was trying to send a clear message.
"Canceling these taxpayer funds is our strongest signal yet that the federal government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff," said Leo Terrell, who leads the Justice Department's antisemitism task force."
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon also weighed in on the decision.
"Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding," she said in a statement. "For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus."
In a statement to The Free Press, Columbia said, "We are reviewing the announcement from the federal agencies and pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding.
We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff."
During the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel riots and demonstrations, university buildings were taken over, property was damaged, and Jewish students were harassed, assaulted, and prevented from attending classes, while the university stood by and did nothing.
The Trump administration’s decision received at least some Democratic support — from Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. "Columbia let antisemitism run amok to cater to lunatic fringe and paid provocateurs," he said.
"Leadership allowed those a***oles to take over the campus and terrorize Jewish students. Now, Columbia pays for its failure and I support that."
But Fetterman was left standing pretty much alone among his Democratic colleagues.
2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., has often claimed (incorrectly) that the First Amendment doesn’t protect hate speech.
In a video of an interview that made the rounds late last year, he asserted that there is "no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy."
Notwithstanding that belief, during his vice presidential run he claimed that anti-Jew, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters that were appearing on America’s college campuses "are speaking out for all the right reasons."
Walz added, "It’s a humanitarian crisis. It can’t stand the way it is, and we need to find a way that people can live together in this."
Which goes to prove that it would be politicians like Walz who would decide what was "hate speech" and what was "disinformation."
Although Walz has yet to comment on the $400 million cancellation of funds to Columbia, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. did.
"Trump’s $400 million cut to @Columbia sends a chilling message that universities must align with the MAGA agenda or face financial ruin," he tweeted, and attached a statement he released with fellow New York Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat.
Nadler, who is himself a Jew, is telling Jewish students attending Columbia that they should just suck it up and accept the harassment, insults, and assaults.
It’s pretty apparent that the left’s defense of First Amendment freedom of expression rights depends entirely upon the message being conveyed.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a firebrand, demonstrated that at a committee hearing last week.
"Some of the [rioters'] defenders say, 'Free speech! Free speech!'" he began.
"You’re right! You have a free speech right as an American citizen to say vile, hateful, bigoted things."
Cruz continued, "Let me ask you something. If a university student went into the public square dressed up in a Klan outfit, burned a cross, and said we should murder African American students, do you have any doubt the university would expel that student?"
By protesting the cancellation of funds to Columbia, Democrats are cutting their own throats in future elections.
They’re telling Jewish students that it would be in their own self-interest to turn their backs on the Democrat Party and become Republicans — maybe even MAGA Republicans.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.