Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is being slammed as a traitor following damning claims he instructed administrators at Columbia University to dismiss any criticism of the school’s handling of blatant violence and antisemitism on campus in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.
The GOP-lead House Education and Workforce Committee in a 325-page report contended the New York Democrat advised then-university president Minouche Shafik that the school would be spared any scrutiny by Democrats, explaining the elite university’s “political problems are really only among Republicans.”
His staff then encouraged Columbia administrators that the “best strategy is to keep heads down,” according to the report.
“The self-proclaimed protector of the Jewish people. Chuckey Schumer is nothing but a kapo traitor. He should be ashamed of himself,” said former Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat-turned-Republican who heads the group Americans Against Antisemitism.
“He is a traitor to America. He is a traitor to the Jewish people. Shame on him! This is what the Democratic Party has become.”
The report came after the committee’s months-long investigation into the handling of anti-Israel protests earlier this year on 11 college campuses, including Columbia, Harvard University, Yale University and Northwestern University.
Private emails and text messages of university leaders, including Shafik, who resigned in August, were among the documents reviewed by the committee.
A spokesman for Schumer insisted the report “is not accurate.”
“Senator Schumer regularly and forcefully condemned anti-Semitic acts at Columbia and elsewhere saying ‘when protests shift to antisemitism, verbal abuse, intimidation, or glorification of Oct. 7 violence against Jewish people, that crosses the line.’ He conveyed this point publicly and to administrators privately,” Angelo Roefaro told The Post Thursday night.
“It’s worthy to note here that Republicans are citing words from someone who is not Chuck Schumer. That is called hearsay,” he added.
According to the report, Columbia trustees ridiculed the committee for reviewing their oversight of the violence and prejudice on campus and texted about how they hoped Democrats would take control of Congress after Shafik’s discussion with Schumer.
In texts with Board of Trustees co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman in January, Shafik described Schumer as “very positive and supportive (and quite the storyteller).”
University leadership then felt emboldened to avoid any kind of meeting with Republicans after Schumer and his staff indicated a forum with the political party wasn’t necessary, the report states.
Greenwald then echoed Schumer’s advice, writing: “If we are keeping our head down, maybe we shouldn’t meet with Republicans.”
Columbia did not yet respond to a request for comment.
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