Sanders Shoots Down Scott’s Resolution on Campus Antisemitism

(JTA) – Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) put forward a resolution condemning the rise in antisemitic acts and speech at colleges across the United States, calling for passage of the resolution by Unanimous Consent on Tuesday.

The resolution calls on “the Department of Education to take necessary actions to ensure that institutions of higher education are complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

It was blocked by Senate Democrats, primarily derailed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Scott said on the Senate floor that the campus hate “threatens the very safety of our Jewish students,” and “there can be no equivocating when it comes to the issue of antisemitic violence or hatred.” He added that “the American people, and especially our Jewish brothers and sisters, deserve our moral clarity on this issue.”

Sanders responded to Scott’s resolution with his own, adding other forms of bigotry like “Islamophobia” and racism, as well as defended the anti-Israel protests, calling them protected under the First Amendment.

“I wonder in the 1960s, when we were black students, what did they want then?” Scott said in a rebuttal to Sanders’ resolution. “It wasn’t a resolution condemning all hate when they were the only target of the hate. It was support for those who were being victimized in the moment. Not a resolution that muddies the water.”