Adam Smith calls it ‘ridicu­lous’ to think cam­pus protests have influ­ence on Biden

Rep. Adam Smith (D‑WA) dis­missed the idea that the count­less cam­pus protests hap­pen­ing across the Unit­ed States are influ­enc­ing Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s han­dling of the war in Gaza, call­ing such a notion “ridicu­lous.”
Biden sig­naled on Wednes­day the Unit­ed States would not pro­vide Israel with bombs and artillery shells if Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu decides to invade Rafah, Gaza. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D‑MN) react­ed to the news on social media by writ­ing that this announce­ment had been what “young peo­ple across the coun­try were protest­ing for,” and that “the arc of what is pos­si­ble is always with­in us to bend.”

This is what young peo­ple across the coun­try were protest­ing for and final­ly the nee­dle has moved in a sig­nif­i­cant way. I hope we see more progress, but don’t ever let peo­ple tell you that your voic­es are mean­ing­less and your actions are worth­less. The arc of what is pos­si­ble is… https://t.co/1zXh3E96Sy
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 9, 2024

“Yeah, absolute­ly not,” Smith said on Fox News Sun­day. “I mean, it’s a ridicu­lous asser­tion. What incen­tivized the president’s deci­sion was two things. The human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in Gaza, …