Politics

Democrats divided over the arrest of Palestinian student for his role in Columbia protests

Published

1 year ago

March 11, 2025

Democrats are deeply conflicted over the Trump administration’s arrest of a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University who faces deportation for his prominent role in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Senate and House Democrats have condemned the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil as a violation of his First Amendment rights to protest — but have tempered their criticism to avoid supporting campus protests that at times featured harassment and assault of Jewish students.

They are also being careful to condemn Hamas, which attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250, and prompting an Israeli response that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, including many civilians.

“I abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports, and have made my criticism of the antisemitic actions at Columbia loudly known,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a post to X on Tuesday.

But the New York Democrat challenged the Trump administration, which has called Khalil a supporter of Hamas, to justify his arrest by immigration agents outside his New York apartment over the weekend.

“If the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law to justify taking this severe action and is doing it for the opinions he has expressed, then that is wrong, they are violating the First Amendment protections we all enjoy and should drop their wrongheaded action.”

Khalil is a Palestinian from Syria who entered the U.S. on a student visa and had obtained legal permanent residency, commonly referred to as a green card. His wife, an American citizen, is eight months pregnant, his lawyers said in court papers.

President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses, celebrated the arrest in a social media post, saying it was “the first of many to come.”

A federal judge halted the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Khalil on Monday, and scheduled a hearing on the case for Wednesday.

Schumer’s statement echoed a similar one from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released Monday.

“To the extent his actions were inconsistent with Columbia University policy and created an unacceptable hostile academic environment for Jewish students and others, there is a serious university disciplinary process that can handle the matter,” Jeffries wrote. “Absent evidence of a crime, such as providing material support for a terrorist organization, the actions undertaken by the Trump administration are wildly inconsistent with the United States Constitution.”

Other prominent Democrats are similarly wrestling with the arrest. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state said he had concerns about some of the campus protests that erupted around the nation after the Oct. 7 attack. But he noted in a social media post that “Khalil committed no crime” and “shouldn’t be locked up for expressing his political views.”

A small number of Democratic representatives have taken a less nuanced view, demanding Khalil’s release while expressing support for the pro-Palestinian movement in a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“We must be extremely clear: this is an attempt to criminalize political protest and is a direct assault on the freedom of speech of everyone in this country,” said the letter, whose signatories include Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. “Khalil’s arrest is an act of anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestinian solidarity movement in this country.”

Other Democratic House members to sign the letter include Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Ohmar and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, was censured for her comments about the Israel-Hamas war in November of 2023. Ohmar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023 for remarks she previously made denouncing the Israeli government.

Politics

Norway is pillaging hearts and minds

Published

30 minutes ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Norway’s fans became famous around New York City for plopping down wherever they are and pretending to row like Vikings — in Times Square, in rain-drenched parking lots before matches and inside MetLife Stadium so vigorously the stadium swayed. Today they bring the “Viking row” to Boston for Norway’s heavyweight clash with France.

For Norwegians, embracing ancestors known above all for rapacious pillaging is complicated stuff, but the country’s leaders are hoping to send some modern messages about their country, too. Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus’ first visit abroad without their parents was to cheer on Norway’s first men’s World Cup appearance in 28 years.

A former member of parliament and foreign minister, Ambassador Anniken Huitfeldt was posted to Washington in 2024, just in time for the election of President Donald Trump. At a New York party for Norwegian fans, she was treated like a celebrity.

When I met her in the crowd, another journalist from back home stopped to say hello. Some guys asked to be in a photo with her. After the interview was over and I was in the middle of a tailgate outside, a random Norwegian volunteered to help me understand some of the chants – and it turns out he said he knew her, too.

This interview was conducted in English, and Huitfeldt’s remarks have been edited for length and clarity.

This seems like an amazing exercise of soft power. The Viking army — you see Norwegians in the subway, on the escalators.

I think it’s been very important to how we look upon ourselves. Because the Viking history has always been important for Norwegians, but we never brag about it in a way. And we haven’t focused that much about it.

But here, it has really made us proud. And I think a lot of people were a little bit embarrassed at the beginning. But when they saw how well it was received here in the U.S., we have really taken part in it. So now we are super happy. I mean, everybody’s joining.

How are you using it for your job, beyond just sort of introducing Norway to Americans and North Americans? Is it helping you do diplomacy?

We put a lot of effort in social media. We have given interviews before to POLITICO about our chef and diplomacy, and we’ve got so much attention. But the video where we are rowing, the staff at the embassy, has been spread to 3 million people. [It had more than 4 million views by Wednesday.]

Hard pivot to foreign policy: Are you looking for anything in particular out of the NATO meeting this week with the president? Is there something Norway would like to see?

I think it’s very important to focus on how European countries over the years have really stepped up. And now it’s a pretty good deal for the U.S., I think, the whole NATO package. Because we spend more on defense than the U.S. does when it comes to GDP, and at the same time we purchase very much of the weapons from the U.S. that we send to Ukraine.

And not to forget how we are taking care of American security up in the high north. I mean all those nuclear weapons on the Kola Peninsula — the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world — those weapons are not directed at Oslo, but at the United States. So we are also taking care of American homeland security up in the high north. So it’s a pretty good package for the American people, the cooperation that we have in NATO.

How has the Trump administration’s positioning towards the Arctic, towards Greenland, towards other things, changed your job, or what you expected your job to be?

Well, it has been challenging, especially when it comes to Greenland, where we have been very united with the other European countries. I think we have been very coordinated in how we talk about this, and for us it’s extremely important that we don’t change the geography and borders up in the high north.

Politics

Wes Moore lays out his vision for America

Published

4 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is on an Independence Day collision course with President Donald Trump.

Moore is planning to deliver a sweeping speech on patriotism on July Fourth from the Maryland State House in Annapolis — with the aim of counterprogramming what Trump promised would be the “most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA.’”

In an interview with Blue Light News, Moore said he thinks Trump is going to spend the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding talking about himself — but that America deserves something more.

“The president is incapable of meeting the moment,” Moore said.

In his split-screen remarks, called “The Work of Patriotism,” the former Army captain and Afghanistan veteran is expected to “make the case that Democrats cannot cede patriotism to Donald Trump — and that love of country is not about loyalty to one man, one party, or one political spectacle,” according to Ammar Moussa, Moore’s press secretary.

Moore will “draw a contrast between patriotism and nationalism, making the case that nationalism is about allegiance to a person or a movement, while patriotism is about allegiance to the country and the people who make it worth fighting for,” Moussa said.

“We are a nation of strength because we are a nation of sacrifice,” Moore will say, according to a draft of his remarks.

But Moore insisted he’s not trying to be a foil to the president.

“I’m trying to be a foil to darkness,” Moore said. “I think I’m trying to be a foil to fatalism. I think I’m trying to be a foil to self-serving ideologies. What I want people to know in all this is that I believe strongly that we need a future-facing vision for this nation.”

That’s exactly what someone who’s “not running” for president would say, right? Standard Maryland gubernatorial reelection fare.

The speech follows a pattern of growing visibility for Moore. He’s been on numerous podcasts and in new media. The day after his speech, he’s expected to appear on an episode of Jubilee’s “Surrounded,” a booking that’s becoming routine for prominent Democratic figures such as Pete Buttigieg, Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

On Saturday, Moore is heading to battleground Michigan, a potential early 2028 primary state, where he’ll stump for gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson in Detroit, Saginaw and Flint — all pivotal locales to win reelection in Maryland, of course.

Moore has said he’s “laser-focused” on his 2026 reelection campaign. Or, as he explained in an interview with POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin: “I’m hungry, but I’m not thirsty.”

The Maryland governor also had his own thoughts about what the progressive victories in New York’s primaries mean, and how that insurgent energy could be harnessed by 2028 Democrats.

“I think harnessing the energy means driving for the results that people are aspiring to,” Moore said, citing primary wins in his own backyard too: “I created an entire slate, the Leave No One Behind slate in Maryland that was wildly successful, and if you look at the candidates that I endorsed and supported, you can’t find an ideological thread in them. We endorsed the progressive legislator from Montgomery County, and we supported the prosecutor in Baltimore County.”

In fact, Moore endorsed some 200 candidates across the state, and his advisers say 93 percent have either won or are in the lead.

“What connects them is a belief that the status quo has got to be disrupted,” Moore said.

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