Trump gives Biden chance to blunt Colum­bia crit­i­cism with Char­lottesville griev­ances

For­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump is try­ing to blame Pres­i­dent Joe Biden for a wave of cam­pus protests that have devolved into anti­se­mit­ic harass­ment and even van­dal­ism.
But Trump’s deci­sion to com­pare the anti-Israel demon­stra­tions to the white suprema­cist vio­lence that took place in Char­lottesville almost sev­en years ago is giv­ing Democ­rats ammu­ni­tion to blunt that line of attack.
Sev­er­al times in the last week, Trump has invoked the 2017 ral­ly, in which he infa­mous­ly sug­gest­ed there were “very fine peo­ple on both sides,” to mag­ni­fy the cri­sis tak­ing place under Biden’s watch. Pro­test­ers have ignored uni­ver­si­ty demands to clear their encamp­ments and, at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, took over a build­ing this week, forc­ing a police response.
“Char­lottesville is peanuts com­pared to what you’re look­ing at now,” Trump said Tues­day out­side of his crim­i­nal tri­al in New York. “This whole coun­try is up in arms.”
The protests give Trump a chance to put Biden on defense on a mat­ter that has frac­tured Democ­rats and threat­ens his stand­ing with young vot­ers. After a week of silence, the pres­i­dent deliv­ered a brief address from the Whit …