Saturday, December 09, 2023
GoLocal LIVE
[embedded content]
UVA Political Science Department Chair Jennifer Lawless.
University of Virginia Professor of Political Science Jennifer Lawless appeared on GoLocal LIVE, where she discussed the Congressional testimony of college presidents at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and MIT this week regarding the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses.
“The college presidents came across as very literal — referring to specific codes, referring to specific statutes, they’re talking about the context in which calling for genocide might be okay versus not be okay,” said Lawless. “It just seemed robotic and out of touch with the way most Americans feel right now, whether you’re a Jewish student, whether you’re a Palestinian student, whether you’re just watching this from afar.”
“There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the way higher education is handling what is going on in the Middle East right now,” said Lawless. “For these college presidents to be sitting there and be parsing definitions and coming up with contextual dependent answers just seemed to reinforce everything that people already think is wrong with higher ed and elite higher ed in particular.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE — SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Bidens in Focus
Lawless also discussed Hunter Biden facing new tax charges –and the implications for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.
“The news for Hunter Biden is especially bad because just a few months ago he was under the impression that a plea deal had been reached, he would avoid jail time, and given that he had paid back the very significant sums that he owed to the IRS,” said Lawless. “He thought that this was basically going to go away and that’s not the case — it’s very likely that he’ll be convicted.”
“I don’t think this is problematic for Joe Biden in terms of his campaign but I can imagine that it’s going to take a pretty substantial psychological toll on him because every time the Republicans try to bash Joe Biden and try to claim he’s not fit for office and shouldn’t be reelected they’re obviously going to be talking about Hunter Biden and trying to conflate Hunter Biden’s legal woes with those of Joe Biden,” said Lawless.
Lawless addressed the differences in how the Department of Justice has operated under Biden — and what could happen if former President Donald Trump is reelected.
“[The Biden campaign] is going to be making the argument that Donald Trump already said that he plans to use the Justice Department and all of the other levers of government to exact revenge on his political opponents,” said Lawless. “This actually helps them do that.”