NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Donald Trump this week lamented the possibility that Columbia University's pro-Palestinian protesters could be treated more leniently than the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, marking the second time the former president has invoked the ongoing campus protests to downplay past examples of right-wing violence.
Speaking Tuesday in the hallway outside a Manhattan courtroom where his is taking place, Trump questioned whether student demonstrators who had seized and , some of them vandalizing it in the process, would be treated the same way as his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop certification of the presidential results.
鈥淚 think I can give you the answer right now,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 why people have lost faith in our court system.鈥
Trump's remarks demonstrate anew how he and the Republican Party have tried to the deadliest assault on the seat of American power in over 200 years, arguing that violent or criminal behavior by the left is a larger threat. Trump has called the rioters and has talked openly about the prospect of if he wins a second term.
His comments come as he runs to reclaim the White House and is juggling charges in four separate criminal cases. They promote his position that the charges are being orchestrated by Democrats to keep him out of the White House and that he and his supporters are the targets of political persecution by a fundamentally corrupt justice system.
"They took over a building. That is a big deal,鈥 Trump said of the Columbia protesters. 鈥淎nd I wonder if what鈥檚 going to happen to them will be anything comparable to what happened to J6, because they鈥檙e doing a lot of destruction, a lot of damages, a lot of people getting hurt very badly. I wonder if that鈥檚 going to be the same kind of treatment they gave J6. Let鈥檚 see how that all works out.鈥
Hours later, the campus building the protesters had occupied and arrested several dozen people. The scene prompted Trump during a Wednesday rally in Wisconsin to characterize New York as being 鈥渦nder siege鈥 the night before.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said those who had taken over the Columbia building would that included burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief. In the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, have been charged with federal crimes. Over 800 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to . According to the Justice Department, 89 have pleaded guilty to federal felony charges of assaulting law enforcement officers.
Legal scholars and political scientists said Trump's strategy could help his campaign, but point out there are stark differences between Jan. 6 and the campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. College students have gathered in encampments on Columbia and other campuses to call for a ceasefire and demand their universities cut financial ties to Israel.
鈥淭he Columbia protests are not aimed at stopping the peaceful transition of power following an election, so they do not threaten the functioning of U.S. democracy,鈥 said Richard Hasen, an expert in election law and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles law school.
Hakeem Jefferson, an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University, said the demonstrations at a Columbia building that also was occupied during a civil rights protest in the 1960s reflect a long tradition of college students 鈥減ushing on the conscience鈥 of their country.
鈥淭his is a tradition of protest. Disruptive, to be sure. Annoying to university administrators, to be sure," Jefferson said. 鈥淭o the contrary, what happened on January the 6th was a violent attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. There is no tradition of that in American history. It is unprecedented. And that is why we should, of course, treat it differently.鈥
Some of the recent campus protests have erupted into clashes with police, and hundreds of students have been arrested. Protesters in some parts of the country have hurled water bottles or other objects at officers, and police have deployed chemical agents to disperse crowds or carried them away amid screams.
Trump's remarks build on a strategy of Republicans and conservative social media influencers what constitutes an insurrection as part of an ongoing attempt to influence the public's perception of Jan. 6. They have used the term to describe public demonstrations and even that put Democrat Joe Biden in the White House.
Some social media users on Tuesday called the takeover of Columbia鈥檚 Hamilton Hall an 鈥渋nsurrection,鈥 and said the media wouldn鈥檛 describe it that way because the views of the protesters aligned with the political left. Fox News used the reference in Tuesday about the student protesters, reporting that 鈥渢he insurrection began at approximately 12:30 a.m.鈥
Legal experts say the term 鈥渋nsurrection鈥 has a specific meaning 鈥 a violent uprising that targets government authority 鈥 and that protests that do not involve an attempt to dismantle or replace a government shouldn't be classified that way.
Tuesday was the second time in a week that Trump has compared the campus protests to past examples of right-wing violence.
Last week, he claimed the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where torch-wielding white supremacists chanted 鈥淛ews will not replace us鈥 compared to the antisemitism displayed at the campus protests.
鈥淭he hate wasn't the kind of hate that you have here,鈥 he said.
He returned to the reference in his comment outside court on Tuesday, saying, 鈥淐harlottesville is peanuts compared to what you鈥檙e looking at now.鈥
The campus protests have pitted students against one another, and videos show instances of demonstrators making antisemitic remarks and violent threats. Some Jewish students say the hateful rhetoric has made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Meanwhile, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.
Columbia University on Tuesday said students occupying Hamilton Hall would face expulsion.
鈥淧rotesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation 鈥 vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances 鈥 and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,鈥 said Ben Chang, the university's spokesperson.
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Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed to this report.
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