Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday criticized pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University as “Meatless Marxists,” and deemed New York University protesters “jihadists.”
“Columbia isn't even the only hotbed of retrograde 20th Century communism on the island of Manhattan,” the Kentucky Republican said in a Senate floor speech decrying Columbia and other universities for pro-Palestinian protests. “While the ‘Meatless Marxists’ take over Morningside Heights, a brand of … jihadism has emerged further downtown at NYU.”
McConnell claimed some protesters were praising “North Korea's solidarity with the Palestinian people,” and “enumerating the way the Kim [Jong Un] regime has helped train and equip Palestinian terrorist groups.”
“Take heart, comrades! Brutal totalitarians and savage terrorists have actually got and found a common cause,” McConnell said.
In another section of his speech, McConnell also derided protesters who broke into Columbia University's Hamilton Hall last week for making “a list of their comrades with vegan dietary restrictions.”
A group of protesters had broken into Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, which houses some administrative offices, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out a window, after the university started suspending students for not clearing out an encampment on campus. Police later cleared out the encampment and protesters from the hall, arresting about 300 people.
