Politics
As protests roil college campuses, young voters' support for Biden hangs in the balance
After days of protests roiling college campuses, President Biden broke his silence with a short, terse speech condemning the chaos and calling for order, while also holding up protest as a fundamental American right.
Will Biden’s comments be enough to sate young voters? Some political analysts think not.
“For Biden to get back on track with young voters, he needs to think and act differently and really take to heart what these young activists have been asking for,” said Diane Wong, assistant professor of political science at Rutgers University.
In a five-minute speech at the White House on Thursday, the president tried to balance two fundamental principles — the right to protest and the rule of law.
“Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is,” he said. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest.”
In addition to calling on their universities to divest from companies doing business in Israel, students have called on the administration to withhold military support from Israel. They’ve also urged Biden to push harder for a peaceful solution in the war between Israel and Hamas.
“Mr. President,” a reporter asked, “have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?”
“No,” Biden said, turning away from the lectern and leaving the room.
Biden’s dismissive reaction to students’ concerns about Gaza has already hampered his campaign, Wong said, pointing out that students at Rutgers University, located in New Jersey, campaigned to push Democratic Michiganers to vote “uncommitted” rather than cast a ballot for Biden in Michigan’s primary.
For months, the Biden campaign has been pushing issues seemingly close to young voters’ hearts — forgiving student debt, advocating for abortion access and even reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Still, Democratic strategist Carly Cooperman said, the campaign’s messaging is not cutting through to youth voters.
“We’ve seen poll after poll show that Biden is just underwater with this group,” Cooperman said.
Wong said the Biden campaign is banking on wooing young voters with issues other than Gaza.
“To me, that seems risky, and a move that Biden will likely regret come November,” Wong said. “Because yes, Gen Z are not single-issue voters, but they’ve collectively just experienced some of the worst political repression on college campuses that we’ve seen in decades. And trauma from from this kind of violence is remembered.”
Until this week, Biden had left it to other administration officials to speak out about the college protests. Former President Trump also has said relatively little, though on Wednesday he praised police for cracking down on protests at Columbia University, and called the students “raging lunatics” and “Hamas sympathizers.”
He mused about whether the students who vandalized campus buildings would be prosecuted in the same way as his supporters who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Young voters famously don’t vote at the same rates as older adults and retirees. Still, their turnout has inched up in recent years. The 2022 midterms saw the second-highest percentage of voters ages 18-29 casting their ballots, said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC’s Price School.
A poll by Harvard’s Institute of Politics, released last month, found that more than half of Americans between 18 and 29 say they will vote in November — which is on par with its 2020 findings.
“Young people today have clear concerns about where our country is headed,” Setti Warren, director of the institute, said in a statement. “From worries about the economy, foreign policy, immigration, and climate, young people across the country are paying attention and are increasingly prepared to make their voices heard at the ballot box this November.”
One of the foremost issues young voters agree on is support for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Slightly more than half of 18- to 29-year-olds support a cease-fire while 10% oppose, the Youth Poll found.
Biden’s dilemma with young voters over his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict has become even more pronounced after a week of protests on college campuses. College-educated youth voters are both Biden’s most likely supporters and those most closely following news about the conflict.
The Harvard poll found that youth voters with a college degree are 50% more likely to pay attention to the news about Israel-Hamas, compared to 39% of current college students and 32% of those who never attended college.
Those voters without degrees present a particular challenge to Biden.
“There’s a lot of voters who don’t have college degrees,” Cooperman said. “And these younger people are really struggling with day-to-day cost of living and the impact of inflation. For them, they’re generally discouraged and unhappy with the status quo. And their current president is Biden. So there is an aspect of this that becomes a referendum on him.”
Trump’s support among young voters generally pales in comparison to his rival — Biden leads by 19% among likely voters under 30, according to the Harvard poll. But, the poll notes, “The race is even among those not in college and without a four-year degree.”
For college students, the war in Gaza is creating unusual momentum for political engagement, Romero said. Typically, she said, political issues in the news do not translate to droves of young voters going to the polls. But the Middle East war is different.
“The topic itself lends it, because of how big it’s intertwined with the Biden administration and their policies,” Romero said. “And it’s an election year, where they feel they have some power. There’s some consequence. They can hold the administration accountable.”
Campaigns would be smart to capitalize on the youth engagement by offering a listening tour, she added.
“Just from an engagement, democratic process perspective, this is an opportunity for the president for both parties to talk to young people about what they care about, and campaign around their positions,” Romero said, while acknowledging, “This is of course an incredibly difficult issue to navigate.”
While Biden has been reluctant to address young voters directly on the issue, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) is one of the Biden campaign’s go-to surrogates grappling with Gaza.
Though Khanna supports the president, he has has been outspoken about his belief that the U.S. should refrain from sending more military aid to Israel, and has been open about his disagreements with Biden on the issue.
In a recent visit to the University of Wisconsin Madison, Khanna asked a roomful of Jewish and Muslim students about their views on Biden, according to a video he posted to X Wednesday.
“The generation in Washington, regardless of party, has been unable to solve it,” Khanna said of the Middle East conflict. “And my hope is more with your generation.”
The school year will soon end, and there’s no telling where pro-Palestinian encampments on campuses — or young voters’ support for Biden — will go.
Politics
Socialism goes west as DSA-backed challenger ousts longtime Democrat
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Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a 30-year incumbent, lost to a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed challenger in a high-profile primary on Tuesday evening.
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old socialist, defeated DeGette in a Democratic primary for a deep-blue House seat anchored in Denver, according to The Associated Press, scoring a major victory for the socialist left on Tuesday evening.
The DSA had been aiming to cast DeGette’s loss as evidence of its growing momentum after a slate of socialist candidates won Democratic primaries in New York City last week.
“Today, the East Coast, next week the Mountain West,” the DSA wrote in a social media post last week.
Rep. Diana DeGette speaks during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 2024. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
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If elected in November, Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia, will likely join the ranks of the far-left group known as the Squad and become one of a handful of the House chamber’s outspoken socialists.
The millennial challenger was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the anti-incumbent leftist organization Justice Democrats. Controversial socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who has said Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel and praised the Chinese Communist Party, also backed Kiros’ insurgent primary run.
DeGette, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sought to win a 16th House term by flexing her leftist bona fides. She argued her seniority on an influential House committee would allow her to push for Medicare-for-All legislation — a longtime priority of the party’s far-left flank.
DeGette, who was endorsed by former CPC Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., also spotlighted her experience as an impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021.
Though DeGette and Kiros shared few policy disagreements, they diverged sharply over Israel and antisemitism. Kiros also sharply criticized DeGette for accepting corporate PAC contributions.
Kiros, a PhD student and lawyer, was fired from a New York firm in 2023 after publishing an open letter, arguing that pro-Palestinian student protesters calling for the elimination of Israel were not antisemitic and appearing to defend Hamas.
Melat Kiros participated in a League of Women Voters Congressional District 1 candidate forum at Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver on May 28, 2026. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post)
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She has also described the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against the Jewish state as the “inevitable consequence of apartheid” and declined to characterize the deadly firebombing of protesters in Boulder last year who were urging the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza as antisemitic.
“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros told Colorado’s 9News in a recent television interview. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.”
A June 2025 bipartisan resolution condemning the attack as part of a “rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals” won every present lawmaker’s support, except for Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted present.
Kiros has also suggested the United States deserved 9/11.
“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East that forced people to believe that another act of violence was the only response,” Kiros told 9News when asked if she thought the terror attack was “the inevitable consequence of American foreign policy.”
“And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros continued.
DeGette argued that Kiros’ embrace of Piker and her comments about antisemitism and 9/11 were disqualifying.
“I’m shocked and disgusted that Kiros is doubling down on excusing terrorism and the murder of innocent people,” the 30-year incumbent wrote on Facebook earlier this month.
Streamer and creator Hasan Piker speaks at a press conference during day two of Web Summit Vancouver at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada, on May 13, 2026. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
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Colorado’s 1st Congressional District is the most liberal seat in the state and voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by 56 points in 2024.
The primary fight was further scrambled by University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, also running for DeGette’s seat. Though James did not pose the same threat as Kiros, her vote share could ultimately have swayed the contest.
Politics
Newsom signs off on 100% California tax for money from Trump’s $1.8-billion ‘slush fund’
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed off on a 100% state tax on money any Californians receive from Trump’s $1.8-billion “anti-weaponization” fund for his political allies.
Newsom unveiled his proposal in May, after Trump’s Justice Department said it would create a fund to compensate Trump’s allies who claim they have “suffered weaponization and lawfare” under Biden’s Justice Department.
The settlement fund was criticized by politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who described it as a “slush fund to pay people who assault cops.”
The fund remains in legal limbo. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Virginia extended a court-ordered block on the plan, which critics warned could be used to pay pardoned Jan. 6 rioters.
Fast-tracked into law as part of Senate Bill 122, Newsom’s plan imposes “a tax on any settlement fund payment from the federal Anti-Weaponization Fund, or any subsequent fund, settlement, or agreement, as provided, at a rate of 100%,” according to the bill text. The tax applies to all tax years between 2026 and 2030.
Newsom signed the bill Tuesday. In a statement, his office said the tax is meant to ensure that, should Trump’s fund proceed, California recipients won’t “receive favorable state treatment on those payments.”
“We believe democracy is worth defending, the rule of law matters, and public dollars should support victims—not those who attacked the very institutions that protect our freedoms,” Newsom said in the statement.
University of Southern California law professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman, an expert on tax law and policy, said that while Newsom’s tax is a “novel legal strategy,” she believes there is “no categorical legal restriction” preventing California from implementing it.
States have a “wide degree of discretion” to design their tax systems — including how they define income — so long as they do not violate their constitutions, Jurow Kleiman said.
If a California resident wanted to challenge the tax in court, they would need to show they were harmed by it to have standing to sue, according to Jurow Kleiman. That would mean receiving a payment from Trump’s settlement fund and then paying the 100% California tax. Unless the settlement fund is established and distributes payments, that scenario is unlikely.
While there have been proposals to levy a 100% tax on income above certain thresholds — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2023 said he supports a 100% tax on income exceeding $1 billion — Jurow Kleiman said she is not aware of any governments that have adopted such a policy.
Politics
Congress eyes rare bipartisan housing win with or without Trump’s help
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The House has officially shipped a colossal bipartisan housing package to President Donald Trump, and lawmakers are hoping that, at the very least, he doesn’t veto it.
Trump was supposed to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act last week, but his last-minute decision to ghost the signing ceremony with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put into question whether the bill was dead.
His refusal to sign the bill, which passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in both chambers, was to leverage the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which doesn’t currently have the votes to succeed in the Senate.
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Trump has refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump appears to be in no hurry to sign the bill, despite Republicans who are hungry for a win in the affordability fight ahead of the midterm elections.
“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”
“Here’s what I would like to sign, much more than a bill that — big deal, it’s a yawn,” he continued. “Some people say it’s wonderful. To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”
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It’s legislation that is loaded with nearly 60 provisions from both sides of the aisle in both chambers that’s designed to make it easier for homes to be built and for younger Americans to buy their first home. It also includes a ban on hedge funds buying up housing stock that Trump pushed Congress to include during the State of the Union earlier this year.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the architects behind the bill in the upper chamber alongside Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., charged that Congress handed the bill to Trump “on a silver platter.”
“When you ask me what happens next, if he cared about the American people, he’d have already signed the damned thing, and we’d be underway,” Warren said on WCVB’s “On the Record” on Sunday.
But Trump doesn’t have to put his signature on the bill for it to become law.
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The Senate advanced a massive, Trump-backed housing package geared toward lowering the costs of homes and supercharging the housing supply. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pitched it as legislation to prevent America from becoming a “nation of renters.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Constitution grants presidents the ability to veto a bill within 10 days of it being transferred over to the White House. In that scenario, Congress could override a veto of the housing package.
It’s happened before under the Trump administration. In early 2021, Congress overrode Trump’s veto of the annual National Defense Authorization Act — a massive Pentagon funding authorization package that some House Republicans are trying to use as a vehicle to pass the SAVE America Act.
But during that 10-day period, if Trump doesn’t sign the bill, it would automatically become law. That’s unless Congress completely adjourns, in which case a “pocket veto” could happen. The Senate is currently in recess and the House is scheduled to leave town by week’s end, but neither count as a full adjournment.
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Johnson, who spent the last few days meeting with Trump at the White House about the housing bill and the SAVE America Act, said: “I hope he does sign it.”
“If he doesn’t, it’s still law,” Johnson said. “We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively. And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”
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