On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY) spoke about his recent visit to Columbia University, why he has little hope after meeting with the university's president, Minouche Shafik, why he wants her to resign, his response to criticism from some New York Democrats, and more.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I do want to get back to your conversation with President Shafiq.
00:04 A few days ago, you told me on this program that you called for her resignation.
00:08 You called for her resignation during your speech yesterday.
00:11 Did you tell her to her face that she should resign?
00:14 Absolutely.
00:16 We had a brief conversation where we gave her the opportunity to talk about steps that she was taking.
00:23 And, I mean, all of us made it very clear that, you know, you can't rationalize with irrational people.
00:29 You can't negotiate with individuals that are looking to cause people harm.
00:35 You're the president of one of the most renowned universities in the world.
00:39 Act like a leader. Tell the kids to go back to school.
00:42 Pack up their crap that's in the quad and get back to actual learning.
00:46 I mean, as I looked out on that crowd yesterday, and I think I mentioned it to a few other news outlets,
00:52 if I was a parent or a guardian spending $93,000 a year to have my kid go to school and run around with a bandana or a T-shirt on
01:01 that says, you know, I'm for Hamas and I am Hezbollah and chanting hatred to America,
01:08 I would be pretty angry that I'm wasting that $93,000 a year.
01:12 And just to be clear, you saw this on the actual campus pro Hezbollah, pro Hamas, GARB and Death to America chants on Columbia's campus?
01:23 Absolutely.
01:25 And when you said to the president's face, you should resign, was she receptive to the idea?
01:31 What was her response?
01:33 She she you know, the really the answer that she gave was that she was kind of thrown into this and that this has been a systemic issue facing
01:43 this university for a long time. And I guess it's it has come to a head following the attacks on October 7th.
01:51 But I mean, the way that that I look at it is, you know, you're put in a situation to be a leader,
01:56 whether the situation that was there before or after, you have to make tough decisions.
02:01 And I think that was a perfect, perfect example was last Saturday.
02:05 You know, Speaker Johnson was put into this position to be speaker of the House, 56 speaker of the House,
02:11 after for the first time in our nation's history, we vacated the speaker of the House.
02:17 I shouldn't say we, you know, eight Republicans and every single Democrat vacated the speaker of the House.
02:23 And he's been thrown into probably some of the most chaotic times that we've seen.
02:28 Newt Gingrich wrote an op ed this weekend in a few newspapers and said that he's been thrown into perhaps one of the most toughest situations of a speaker of the House since the Civil War.
02:39 But he's a leader. And I think last Saturday showed exactly the leadership that we need,
02:44 that you can't listen to the to the far fringes of the parties and you have to do what's best for America at the right time.
02:50 And that's exactly what Speaker Johnson did. And quite frankly, the president of Columbia should should take some notice from the speaker of the House and start acting like a leader and not acting like the friend of the protesters in the quad.