GOP Senators Josh Hawley (Missouri) and Tom Cotton (Arkansas) have asked President Biden to deploy the National Guard to colleges, specifically Columbia University in New York City, where protesters supporting Palestinians have organized sit-ins and other disruptive actions to bring public focus to the war.
Hawley stated, "Eisenhower sent the 101st to Little Rock. It’s time for Biden to call out the National Guard at our universities to protect Jewish Americans." posted on the social platform X.
He was referring to former President Eisenhower’s decision to call in the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 to ensure the safety of nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School.
It was in response to former Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus (D) directing the Arkansas National Guard to encircle the school and prevent the nine students from integrating the school following the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, which declared “separate but equal” segregation unconstitutional.
Cotton urged the Biden administration to “dismantle” the pro-Palestinian groups on Columbia’s campus if New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) fails to take control of the situation by deploying the New York National Guard.
“The emerging violence at Columbia needs to stop TODAY, before our Jewish brethren gather for Passover Seder tonight. If Eric Adams won’t send the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and dissolve these mobs,” Cotton stated. posted on X.
Cotton’s request for the National Guard or federal troops to intervene at Columbia echoes his call for then-President Trump to “send in the troops” to disperse protests that spread across the country after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.
In a New York Times op-ed, Cotton suggested invoking the Insurrection Act to restore order, cautioning: “These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives.”
“In these circumstances, the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to employ the military ‘or any other means’ in ‘cases of insurrection, or obstruction of the laws,’” Cotton argued at the time.
Columbia, where escalating protests have attracted national attention, announced Monday it would hold classes remotely to diffuse the tense situation on campus.
Students demonstrating against the Gaza war, including Jewish students, have established a camp on Columbia’s central lawn and have demanded the university divest from companies profiting from the conflict.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik last week enlisted the New York City Police Department to dismantle the tent encampment, leading to over 100 arrests, and the university has also suspended some students, but those actions did little to calm the protests.
The demonstrations have spread to other universities, such as Yale in Connecticut, where police arrested over 45 protesters on Monday.
