Remember when the media went nuts and accused Donald Trump of praising Nazis when he said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally (although he WASN’T referring to the neo-Nazis)? Well, President Biden just had his own “very fine people” moment. Glenn reviews how Biden’s answer to a question about anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University was EXACTLY what the media accused Trump of. But yet, there’s no outrage… Glenn also reviews the message of a Jewish professor at Columbia who was barred from campus after his participation in a pro-Jewish rally.
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I've learned from the president. That why focus on the negative?
Here's President Biden about what's going on in Columbia university.
Yesterday.
VOICE: End the anti-Semitic protests at college campuses.
VOICE: That's why I've set up a program. I also condemn voters who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.
VOICE: Should the Columbia University president resign?
VOICE: I didn't know that.
GLENN: So wait a minute. Hang on. I think what I heard here was, you know, there's fine people on both sides.
STU: Very fine. I would call them very fine.
GLENN: Yeah. Very fine people on both sides. It's almost like what happened with Donald Trump. Except when Donald Trump said that, he was a Nazi. He was a Nazi sympathizer. He was reaching out to the Nazis.
Nowhere, do I read how he's a Nazi. That Biden is a Nazi. For saying the same thing about the same kind of people. They were calling for the death of Jews.
STU: It really is fascinating.
GLENN: It's fascinating.
STU: You pointed this out, just because you came on the air.
I can't believe the parallels.
It's exactly the same thing.
GLENN: It is!
STU: It's just a left-wing version, and I have listened to tons of coverage and watched a bunch of coverage on this, over the past 24 hours. And now that I think of it, the entire tone of the coverage was, there are very fine people on both sides.
GLENN: Very fine people on both sides.
STU: It's like, yes, some of these Jewish students have been walking down the street and being attacked.
You know, one woman said that she was trying to go to class. And someone came up to her with a sign that said, we hope Hamas comes here next.
GLENN: Oh.
STU: And then they went to a protester on the Palestinian side. Who said, look, we know there's been some bad incidents. We're here peacefully protesting. There's no question, as to whether that was appropriate to do. To cover. Because I don't remember, on let's say, during Charlottesville.
When they found people in the crowd, who are like, yeah. I don't know what these nut jobs with the Tiki torches are, I'm just here for the statue thing.
GLENN: You know, there's another case like that, that comes to mind.
STU: Really?
GLENN: It wasn't just Charlottesville.
STU: Thinking, calculating.
GLENN: Oh, January 6th.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: I never heard anybody say, yeah. Well, there were grandmothers here. Nice people here. That's not what they were doing. There were some really bad people there. We should condemn them. But not the others. I don't remember that.
STU: No. I don't remember that either. There was 100,000 people at the speech. All of them seem to be painted with the very broad stroke. That's awful.
GLENN: That's weird.
You know who does that? Who used to love doing that?
Hitler. Yeah. He used to do that all the time.
STU: You went right to Hitler. Seeming, his ideals are living on today. And seeming in all these protests.
GLENN: You know, I'm not going to tolerate anymore people saying, oh, you know, you're bringing up Hitler. Of course, you're going right to Hitler. Hitler.
Yeah. Because you're saying exactly the same things, that Hitler said.
STU: You are basically quoting Mein Kampf in every one of these protests. It's not that crazy.
That's a fascinating.
GLENN: By the way, I hope Hamas comes here. What do you mean by that.
You want the rape? The killing, the slaughtering? The burning of children. The chopping off of heads.
Is that what you're looking for?
STU: A chant just yesterday of a long live October 7th.
I mean, maybe they just had something else going on that day on October 7th. We don't know. It could be anything.
GLENN: I think the press should find out. I think they could find somebody who said, no. We were just talking about that wonderful, wonderful concert that was happening.
Because there were good things that day. And some bad things.
STU: And a couple bad things. A couple thousands of individuals bad things.
GLENN: Yeah. You know what this looks like, at Columbia university.
Well, first of all, could I just play -- this guy was locked out of Columbia. He was an associate professor.
And he was locked out. From the campus. Because they were afraid. You know, it would get out of hand. So he was just standing on the street, in front of Columbia. And he was speaking. And I just -- I mean, want you to hear what he had to say. It was very radical. Very radical.
VOICE: I know you're afraid.
I know you're a victim. Bravery. Bravery is not, not being afraid. Bravery is showing up when you're afraid. That's what courage is about. Showing up. And you all showed up. And you will keep showing up. And next time you show up, bring a Jew friend. Bring five friends, bring ten friends. A Jewish and non-Jewish friends, we need to make the world understand that being Jewish in public is a safe thing. Right?
It shouldn't be something that is contested. We are not fighting just for the Jews. We are fighting -- we are fighting for everyone. We are fighting for the rights of African-Americans. We are fightings for the rights of Hispanics. We're fighting for the rights of women and LGBTQ and the trans community. We are fighting for everyone.
Because it always starts with the Jews, and it never ends with the Jews. So I am here for all of you.
GLENN: Boy, you could see why Columbia University locked him out of -- they deactivated his key card, so he couldn't get back into the university. Because he's an extremist, clearly.
STU: The hatred.
GLENN: But don't just take that as the entire movement. Because there are some very fine people on the other side. As well.
Let me take you way back into the time machine, of 1933.
New York City. In 1933. Hitler has come to power. The Nazis begin taking Jewish students, and speckle them. Dismissing the Jewish professors from the universities.
You're not German enough.
And the campuses across Germany. Nazis, and their sympathizers. They start burning the books. You know, written by Jews. And perceived enemies.
Including, what's weird.
On that list of books to burn, was a book by a -- a Columbia professor and anthropologist named Frank Boaz, but he was Jewish.
They had on their list, to make sure they burned his books in the universities, in Berlin.
Now, just months after the first book burnings, Columbia had a president, Nicholas Murray Butler. He welcomed hens Luther in. He was the German ambassador to the United States. And he said, you have to come to Morning Heights.
You crazy cats over there, you're being misunderstood.
You got to come over here. And then he told all of the students at Columbia.
I respect him. He deserves the greatest courtesy and respect.
Now, at the same time, Columbia was doing this.
Cambridge, the dean of the Harvard law school. He accepted an honorary free at the university of Berlin.
He was there over 1934. And he returns from a trip. And he -- he got that -- he got that special honor from Berlin.
And he -- he came back to assure people, there is no persecution of Jewish scholars or of Jews, happening in Germany.
You know, for those Jews who have lived in Germany for any length of time.
That's an odd thing to say. Butler, back in Columbia, responded, because there were some criticism on campus. The spectator, and other student groups. He had to respond to.
He emphasized that Columbia's relationships with the German universities, strictly academic. No political implications, at all.
And he then mocked the protests, that were standing up against the university, saying, hey. You know, there's bad things happening with Jews.
And he's like, this is just academic. This is academic -- we have nothing to do with any of the spooky stuff from the Nazis. And then he said, quote, may we next expect to be told, that we should not read Goethe's Faust, or listen to Wagner's Ring Cycle? Or study the picture galleries at Dresden? Because we so heartily disapprove of the present form of government in Germany?
Now, by the way, he was a long-time admirer of Benito Mussolini as well. And in 1934, he fired Jerome Klein. That's a weird name, isn't it? Klein. You know what I'm saying. Right?
So we know why he was fired. He was a young member of the fine arts faculty.
And he signed an appeal against the Luther invitation.
And he -- and he was fired.
Also, Robert Burke, a Columbia college student, he was expelled because he was participating in the 1936 book burning. And anti-Nazi picket on campus.
So you couldn't picket the Nazis.
You know.
But you could go to the big rally, at Madison Square Garden.
Held by the Nazis.
They loved that.
That was great. So what I think I'm trying to say is, why are we surprised
Why are we surprised?
Harvard was disturbing as well.
There was a warm welcome extended to Ernst Hanfstaengl.
Earnest Hanfstaengl here. Yeah.
He was -- he came to the commencement in 1934.
He was a Nazi leader. Good, good, close personal friend of Hitler. And Harvard, well, a lot of people were like, hey, Mr. Hanfstaengl maybe shouldn't be here, yeah.
Harvard, they loved it. The students loved it. The faculty. They were delighted.
In fact, the president of Harvard wrote, it's trillion shameful. It's truly shameful, that -- the -- the -- the most prestigious, prominent university is coming under attack. You know.
For this. Now, they're just trying to influence young minds. And, you know, we're not for the Germans, but we're not not for the Germans either. Isn't that right, Mr. Hanfstaengl?
Here's the problem: I can't believe in 2008, I said several times, the hatreds of the past, that we saw in the 1930s are going to come back with a vengeance.
We are going to see the same things that happened in Europe, in the 1930s, happening on our streets.
And if we don't stand up and stop it, if we don't choose to be -- to never forget, never again is the promise we made to each other.
We're going to make the Nazis. With our technology. We will make the Nazis look like rookies.
It's up to America now, to decide.
I personally think, I haven't spoken to Mr.Hanfstaengl.
But I personally think Jesus is coming.
Kind of soon. Probably.
STU: Glenn, there are very fine Hanfstaengls on both sides.
GLENN: On both sides, really? So there were the kill the Jews Hanfstaengls, and then the, eh Hanfstaengls.
STU: Hanfstaengls. Yes. You've got it. You've heard this story.
GLENN: Yeah, okay.