‘I would deport you from those campuses’: Tim Scott warns students on visas against ‘encouraging Jewish genocide’
During the debate, Tim Scott had a scathing response to a question about rising anti-Semitism on college campuses in the US amid the Israel-Palestine conflict
Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Tim Scott are debating for the third time on Wednesday, November 8, in Miami. The debate began at 8 pm ET and is available to watch on your local NBC station, NBC News Now, and in Spanish on Universo.
It can also be streamed on NBCNews.com and Peacock, and in Spanish on NoticiasTelemundo.com and its Facebook, X, and YouTube pages. It can also be watched on Noticias Telemundo mobile app.
During the debate, Tim had a scathing response to a question about rising anti-Semitism on college campuses in the US amid the Israel-Palestine conflict. "College is a privilege and not a right," Tim said, adding he would pull federal funding from universities that "allow students to encourage terrorism."
"To all the students on visas who are encouraging Jewish genocide, I would deport you from those campuses," he added. “We have to stand strong with our Jewish Americans. At the end of the day, we should not have our Jewish students in a library being told to hide.”
Incidents of anti-Semitism on college campuses
Most recently, the University of Pennsylvania’s president sought FBI’s assistance after staffers were threatened with antisemitic emails. President Elizabeth Magill has announced that police presence will be heightened on campus, and that the FBI has also been called in about a potential hate crime after a “small number of Penn staff members received vile, disturbing antisemitic emails.”
Reportedly, the emails “threatened violence” against Jewish members of the school. They specially targeted those working at Penn Hillel, which is a Jewish organisation, and Lauder College House.
In another incident, Patrick Dai, a self-identified “Hamas fighter,” was arrested for threatening to kill Jews at Cornell University. Patrick was arrested on a federal criminal complaint that charges him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. He could face a maximum of five years behind bars, and could have to pay a fine of up to $250,000. The charge also carries a term of supervised release of up to three years.
Meanwhile, a professor of Cornell University who came under fire for his comments on the Hamas attack in Israel has reportedly taken aleave of absence from the school. A viral video showed Russell Rickford saying the Hamas attack was “exhilarating” and “energising.” Russell, an associate professor of history at the school in Ithaca, New York, made the comments at a pro-Palestinian protest.