The anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas encampment continued to spread to other university and college campuses like a disease over the weekend and ABC correspondent Trevor Ault responded on Monday by boasting that crackdowns were “hardening the resolve” of the student extremists. He even suggested that they were the ones being threatened and not the ones causing the problems.
Right at the top of the segment, Ault and fill-in anchor/transportation correspondent Gio Benitez bantered about how the crackdown seemed to be having the opposite effect on the encampments:
BENITEZ: And here at home, amid the Israel/Hamas War there is growing unrest on college campuses. Police arresting hundreds of people this weekend at protests there with high schoolers making their decision on where to go to college in just two days. Trevor Ault is at USC in Los Angeles with more on this. Good morning, Trevor.
AULT: Good morning, Gio. So, the heightened response from police and from universities seems to really only be hardening the resolve of a lot of these protesters. And what's especially notable is we have people on all sides here, outside and inside the demonstrations who say they don't feel safe.
Without showing any of the anti-Semitic incidents caught on camera, particularly the videos of students chanting for the murder of Jews, Ault portrayed the anti-Semites as victims of unfair characterizations and free speech crackdowns:
AULT: Saturday demonstrations from Northeastern to Indiana, Washington University in St. Louis, and Arizona State, many demanding their schools divest from companies believed to be profiting from the war and calling for a cease-fire. Several accusing police and their universities of infringing on their right to protest.
PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 1: We want to feel supported by our institution and we want to feel like they're meeting us.
PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 2: We will not be leaving until those demands are met.
AULT: Cornell University suspending several students. School officials also accusing some protesters at rallies on campus of chanting anti-Semitic phrases.
Ault also tried to cast doubt on who could be behind pro-Hamas vandalism. “Officials at USC accusing some demonstrators of harassment and vandalism, ‘say no to genocide’ painted on this statue,” he gawked.
Yeah, it’s a real mystery, Trevor. Who could have spray-painted that?
Meanwhile, over on NBC’s Today, correspondent Erin McLaughlin hyped how pro-Hamas extremists tore down an American flag and replaced it with a Palestinian one. “At Harvard, protesters put up Palestinian flag where an American flag would fly,” she said.
ABC concluded the segment with Ault seemingly suggesting that the students weren’t responsible for what they were doing. “And it has been noted that some of the people at these campus demonstrations, including some arrested, are not students,” he argued.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
April 29, 2024
7:09:08 a.m. EasternGIO BENITEZ: And here at home, amid the Israel/Hamas War there is growing unrest on college campuses. Police arresting hundreds of people this weekend at protests there with high schoolers making their decision on where to go to college in just two days. Trevor Ault is at USC in Los Angeles with more on this. Good morning, Trevor.
TREVOR AULT: Good morning, Gio. So, the heightened response from police and from universities seems to really only be hardening the resolve of a lot of these protesters. And what's especially notable is we have people on all sides here, outside and inside the demonstrations who say they don't feel safe.
[Cuts to video]
This weekend, hundreds of protesters arrested at college campuses across country. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations escalating further, along with counter-protests and the police response to these accelerating tensions.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I support the right for people to protest, always, as they should have. I think it brings in a lot of outside, like, antagonists.
AULT: Saturday demonstrations from Northeastern to Indiana, Washington University in St. Louis, and Arizona State, many demanding their schools divest from companies believed to be profiting from the war and calling for a cease fire. Several accusing police and their universities of infringing on their right to protest.
PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 1: We want to feel supported by our institution and we want to feel like they're meeting us.
PRO-HAMAS PROTESTER 2: We will not be leaving until those demands are met.
AULT: Cornell University suspending several students. School officials also accusing some protesters at rallies on campus of chanting anti-Semitic phrases. At UCLA Sunday, pro-Israel demonstrators holding a counter-protest.
PRO-ISRAEL PROTESTER: They don't know what is going on in Gaza. They don't know what is going on. And they need to learn.
AULT: Thousands showing up. The university saying a group breached the barrier separating the two groups leading to some violent altercations. The LAPD issuing a citywide tactical alert through the weekend. Officials at USC accusing some demonstrators of harassment and vandalism, “say no to genocide” painted on this statue. And this morning, with no end in sight for these demonstrations, more and more colleges and universities grappling with how to move forward.
KIM WEHLE (ABC contributor, University of Baltimore School of Law): Public universities and colleges and the police don't have the right to stop a message. They have a right sometimes to stop the manner in which the message is being conveyed. Hate speech is not protected. There are certain kinds of speech that are protected, but protesting the government's involvement in a conflict overseas is classic first amendment protected activity.
[Cuts back live]
AULT: And it has been noted that some of the people at these campus demonstrations, including some arrested, are not students. And here at USC, still, the students, the faculty, the staff, they all still have to show their ID just to get on campus.
