Fox News anchor Sandra Smith reported on the deadline for Columbia University protestors to disband on Monday and marveled at the school’s lack of action as the deadline sailed by without any consequences for the students.
“And John, it’s not just Columbia, right? We’ve got these live pictures now coming into us out of, UT, where this would be the second week of protests that we’ve been watching there. Per our latest email from our producer on the ground, the protests at UT are now ramping up. There are students locking arms, as you can see, in a circle around that tent encampment. Police are on the lawn now. We’re told police are flying a drone above them. They’re forming a circle, with their arms. And that’s about as much as they’re chanting, ‘Whose lawn, our lawn,’ among other things,” Smith said.
Co-anchor John Roberts replied, “So here’s the interesting thing is, if this gets going at the University of Texas, we’ll probably see a similar response that we saw last week that the Texas State Troopers, the Texas University of the — University of Texas Police will probably come out and disperse the crowd. Don’t forget, at Columbia, which I believe is still trying to make commencement happen on May the 15th.”
“They have just told the students, if you don’t leave, you’re going to get suspended. They didn’t say if you don’t leave, we’re going to come in and clear the place out. So I think all we’re seeing there is, you know, there’s a reaction to the fact that Columbia has said these students will likely lose their year if, if they don’t clear out, but probably nothing else will happen. So I think all we’ll see is a lot of students who no longer have official capacity as students,” Roberts added, arguing that the deadline passing and the camps being cleared may not necessarily mean the students won’t face consequences.
Smith remained stunned and incredulous, saying, “But, I mean, you’re just greenlighting them even more than you have, if you set a deadline, don’t follow through, don’t enforce it.”
Roberts replied, “I think they’re probably going to follow through and suspend them, but they never, ever said that they’re going to clear out the camp.”
“Suspend them?!” scoffed Smith, adding, “That would take officials walking through this crowd, noting who every single person is. I don’t see that happening. I mean, is that realistic?”
“I think. Didn’t Columbia say they know who they are?” Roberts replied.
“Well. Okay,” Smith replied.
Roberts concluded, “I think they do. All right. So as that, is that continues to unfold. Protesters at the University of California in Los Angeles broke into fights over the weekend. The school had to try to separate the two sides with metal barricades.”
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
Most Popular
Comments / 0