Joe Biden, Top Democrats Turn on Pro-Palestinian Protesters

Anumber of leading Democratic figures are now regularly speaking out against the student pro-Palestinian protests across the country, including President Joe Biden decrying the "vandalism" and "violence" breaking out.

The encampment demonstrations, which started in New York's Columbia University before expanding to other campuses, have been ongoing for weeks now. The movement is protesting Israel's war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, which has been accused of amounting to a genocide against Palestinians.

On Tuesday, the New York Police Department removed dozens of protesters who had barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall, which was the scene of student anti-Vietnam war protests in 1968, amid reports of vandalism and destruction occurring inside the academic building. Violence also erupted between masked pro-Israeli groups and pro-Palestinian students on campus at the University of California, Los Angeles, resulting in hundreds of officers swarming the campus to break up the fighting.