Biden’s co-chair dismisses Sanders’ comparison of campus chaos to Vietnam as exaggerated

President Biden’s co-chair for the 2024 campaign, Mitch Landrieu, shrugged off Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ comparison of the rampant anti-Israel protests on college campuses to the 1968 election, stating that Biden could be handling his version of the Vietnam situation. Landrieu argued that the comparison made by Sanders was an “over-exaggeration.”

In a comment to CNN, Landrieu stated, “This is a very different circumstance. I think that people who actually lived through that very difficult time, they would say that this isn’t comparable. However, that is not to say that this is not a very serious matter.”

Last week, Sanders, speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, drew parallels to the 1960s, specifically to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to seek re-election in 1968 due to his opposition to the Vietnam War. Sanders compared Biden’s handling of college protests to Johnson’s stance on the war.

“I am thinking back, and other people are making this reference that this may be Biden’s Vietnam,” Sanders said. “Lyndon Johnson, in many respects, was a very, very good president. Domestically, he brought forth some major pieces of legislation. He chose not to run in ’68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam, and I worry very much that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated, not just young people, but a lot of the Democratic base, in terms of his views on Israel and this war.”

College protesters and outside agitators have been rallying on college campuses across the nation since last month, setting up encampments like the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Columbia University’s campus until police dismantled it. These demonstrators are demanding schools sever all financial ties with Israel. Alongside the protests, agitators and radicals have been advocating for the deaths of Israel and the United States while expressing support for Hamas’ attacks on Israel.

Biden has condemned the violence and antisemitism occurring on college campuses but faced criticism for taking days to address the issue publicly as protests escalated last week.

“There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian Americans. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American,” Biden stated last week.

His remarks were scrutinized for condemning Islamophobia and antisemitism in the same breath, drawing comparisons to former President Donald Trump’s comments denouncing the Charlottesville riots in 2017, where he said there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Landrieu defended Biden’s leadership during the protests, affirming the president’s commitment to upholding the First Amendment rights while ensuring peaceful protest.

“The president has been very strong about this from the beginning, and the president came out the other day, and as he said, as he has always said, he understands that people have a right to protest, but they have to do so peacefully,” Landrieu stated. “But when it turns violent, that’s when things have to end.”

Critics have condemned Biden for taking nine days to address the anti-Israel campus agitators on camera, although the White House had condemned the hate and violence through various comments to the media. The president finally addressed the nation on-camera last Thursday.

“There are very passionate opinions on both sides of this issue,” Landrieu noted. “The president has been handling it very, very well and he’s going to continue to do so.”