Biden to deliver 2 commencement addresses next month
President Joe Biden is set to deliver two commencement addresses next month, providing him a prime platform to address young voters as tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza continue to roil college campuses.
Biden will address graduates at Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Georgia, during the school’s May 19 ceremony. He’ll also speak at the commencement for the United States Military Academy at West Point on May 25, according to the White House.
His speech at Morehouse will give Biden the chance to appeal directly to young, Black voters in a swing state that was crucial to his success in the 2020 election. But both addresses also come amid a particularly fraught political environment on college campuses.
Protests that began at prominent colleges and universities across the country in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel continue to simmer. And tensions that recently erupted following the arrest of more than 100 protesters at Columbia University last week have caused that division to resurface at other schools in recent days.
Biden on Monday condemned the actions of demonstrators who he deemed as “antisemitic” while also condemning “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
On Tuesday, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told reporters Biden has had "a number of conversations with community members," when asked if the president had been speaking to protesting students directly.
"He also knows this is a painful moment for many communities," Bates said. "When people speak out at our events, he shows empathy, he shows compassion. He respects their right to make their voices heard. And I think that says a lot about how he is approaching a very complex situation."
Biden has attempted to manage a precarious balance between supporting Israel, the U.S.’s main ally in the Middle East, and pushing for humanitarian protections for Palestinians facing a deadly siege in Gaza. The conflict has serious implications for Biden’s reelection efforts, and activists in several states have successfully pushed campaigns to vote against the president in the primary.
Eli Stokols contributed to this report.
