Student Protests and MTG is at it Again
Hello everyone and welcome back to another week of Politics Explained! We hope everyone is doing great and excited for another month of Politics! If you’re new, we publish short and concise blogs every Friday that recap the happenings of Capitol Hill. This week there is news on the protests on college campuses all across America about Israel and the Gaza war, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threats, and the the Democrats helping out Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. So let’s dive right in!
During the past few weeks, pro-Palestinian protests have started on college campuses across the country. On April 17, a group of college students at Columbia University in New York City displayed their displeasure with the ongoing war by seizing a campus building and refusing to leave. This was the first step that the protests took and now many other colleges are being pulled into it, including UCLA, Emory, George Washington, City University of New York, Fordham, University of Wisconsin, University of Arizona, and Tulane. Many of the colleges and universities have started to bring in law enforcement to stop the protests and remove the protesters, with many of the protesters being expelled from their colleges. Republican lawmakers have characterized these pro-Palestinian protests as threats to Jewish college students, and as being unlawful. There will be lots more to come from this so stay tuned!
On Wednesday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said that she will force a vote next week on the ousting* of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). Many Republicans have shown their discontent with Rep. Greene’s plans (which only appear to have the backing of two other Republican Members) and Democrats have stated that they will back Speaker Johnson if there is a vote to oust him. Most lawmakers favor a functioning Congress and feel that a move to replace the Speaker would be an unnecessary distraction.
Definition of the Week (Ousting): drive out or expel (someone) from a position or place.
