Biden's biggest donors also funding big political challenge for him: college protests
WASHINGTON (TND) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rocking college campuses have made it clear they aren’t relenting anytime soon. Activists say they plan to carry on well past graduation into summer.
The unrest on campus pushed some schools including Columbia University and the University of Southern California to cancel campus-wide graduation ceremonies.
The rapid escalation of these protests in recent weeks shocked many. However, an analysis by the Wall Street Journal found many of these college students spent the past months coordinating with and being coached by well-established left-wing activist groups.
According to the report, groups like the National Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, If Not Now, Jewish Voice for Peace and former Black Panthers worked heavily with some of these college students to make their demonstrations more effective and potent.
The longer these protests continue the more they threaten the president politically. Last week Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., warned this could be "Biden's Vietnam," a reference to Lyndon B. Johnson deciding not to run for re-election in 1968 amid anti-war protests.
President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated not just young people but a lot of the Democratic base," Sen. Sanders said last Thursday.Politico finding some of the deep pockets who financially back these activist organizations are also some of Biden’s biggest donors. For example, Democratic megadonors George Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund have both donated to the Tides Foundation which then gave half a million dollars to Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP is one of the main non-student groups supporting the protests on campuses.
"Many liberal, left-leaning non-profits that are giving to organizations that are directly funding these protests on campus. And frankly, due to that, it’s no wonder the Biden Administration was silent for so long on the issue," said James Fitzpatrick, Director of the Center to Advance Security in America.
Dr. Todd Belt, the Political Management Program Director at George Washington University points out that these apparent conflicts of interest between donors giving to foundations and politicians are not uncommon.
This often happens because these donations given to these nonprofit groups are often given several years in advance. Then there’s a granting process by which these nonprofits give the money out to the individual groups. So it’s not like the people who funded them are directly connected to it and it can cause some conflict as we’ve seen," explained Belt.This comes as a new ABC News-Ipsos poll published on Sunday shows President Biden trailing former President Donald Trump.
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