News Desk, Bangladesh Global: What does Joe Biden have to say about the rowdy student protests against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza that have rocked American college campuses in recent weeks? Almost nothing.
The US president has so far avoided the contentious subject as it is likely to complicate his reelection campaign.
The 81-year-old Democrat, who will almost certainly face Republican Donald Trump in November's presidential election, has publicly addressed the demonstrations only once and briefly, even as students have clashed with police and several hundred people have been arrested at universities across the country.
"I condemn the anti-Semitic protests. That's why I have set up a program to deal with that," Biden said last week in response to a journalist's question. "I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians."
Biden's reluctance to weigh in on the biggest and most prolonged unrest to rock US campuses since the Vietnam war protests of the 1960s and 70s has not gone unnoticed by Trump.
"There's a big fever in our country, and he's not talking," the 77-year-old tycoon said Wednesday during a campaign rally.
Trump urged college presidents to "remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses." As for the demonstrators at Columbia University, he called them "raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers."
Stay tuned for latest news and updates bangladeshglobal.com Log in to get breaking news and hot topics of the day:www.bangladeshglobal.com
