Mike Johnson hits back at Ilhan Omar’s ‘absurd’ criticism of his Columbia visit

House Speaker Mike Johnson told the "Brian Kilmeade Show" Thursday that Rep. Ilhan Omar's, D-Minn., criticism of his visit to Columbia University was "absolutely absurd." Johnson, R-La., said Omar and other far-left Democrats are saying "exactly the wrong thing" as Jewish students at the Ivy League school have expressed fears for their safety amid anti-Israel demonstrations.

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MIKE JOHNSON: It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd for her to say that. It's incredible that I was going there to meet with and speak out on behalf of Jewish students. Safety could be seen as divisive in any way. This is exactly the problem. It's actually an issue that ought to be uniting every elected official. But some of these folks are afraid to speak out, and others, like my colleague Omar, are saying exactly the wrong thing. Look, if these universities would be held accountable and then protect their students on campus, we wouldn't need to be there. We wouldn't need to speak out. And the House has taken action to do everything that's within our power, and we're going to do more. But we need everybody who has a platform, every elected official to be on the right side of this. And sadly, some of them are doing exactly the wrong thing.

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Omar, whose daughter was arrested at the Columbia encampment earlier this week, said Johnson was putting people's lives in danger with his visit to the area.

"It is not surprising that he would go out to Columbia University and stir up really more anger and hate and endanger the lives of young people who are at the encampment at Columbia University," she told MSNBC.

The speaker's office told Fox News Digital in response to the attacks, "Speaker Johnson spoke to students at Columbia University because Governor Hochul and other officials in New York have completely failed in their duty to protect Jewish students and combat the rise of antisemitism in their party. We wish it hadn’t been necessary."

Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

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