As we witness the pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, worsen, more information comes out that many of those arrested are not students and are instead professional agitators. Representative Cory Mills (R-FL) discussed the revelation in a recent appearance on Fox Business's Evening Edit while also condemning President Biden's brief address on the protests, saying the White House will "continue to try and talk out of both sides of their mouths."
In President Biden's Thursday address on the protests, he said, "There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it's antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans," which host Elizabeth MacDonald accused Biden of trying to please both sides.
Rep. Mills agreed, saying, "You know this administration, as well as others, continue to try and talk out of both sides of their mouths without acknowledging the simple facts: There are Jewish students who are being harassed, intimidated, and being prevented from going to their classes, all because of these radicalized groups."
More worryingly, Rep. Mills pointed out that "the majority of these groups are not even students. These are agitators and pro-Hamas that are out there trying to radicalize these children," having previously suspected there was more to the protests than superficial student radicalism.
While the Florida Congressman did not speak of it, police in Austin, Texas, found the starkest example of this radicalization at the University of Texas, where they found stashes of weapons, including firearms, hidden throughout the campus by protesters.
Nevertheless, Mills reiterated, "We know for a fact that laws are being broken," and they must be enforced.
Moreover, the professional agitators "do not deserve a right to be sitting and holding ground on these protest rounds." At the same time, students who had engaged in violence should face expulsion, and any on foreign visas are "immediately deported," which was spoken of by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in late April.
After all, "We have to take strong action against this. We cannot just continue to allow it to occur over and over and sit here and use sharp words like we are [going] to somehow scare them off," Mills concluded.
