Biden finally condemns pro-Palestinian agitators 'destroying' college campuses but won't send in the National Guard: 'There's the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos'

President Joe Biden has finally addressed the chaos caused by pro-Palestinian protesters at college campuses across the country.

'Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It's against the law,' he said from the Roosevelt Room Thursday. 'Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows and shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation. None of this is peaceful protest.' 

'There's the right to protest,' he continued. 'But not the right to cause chaos.'

The president was facing mounting pressure from both parties to address the havoc that has led to hundreds of arrests and damage at some of the nation's most prestigious universities. 

He spoke for less than four minutes before departing for a planned trip to Wilmington, North Carolina, telling reporters as he walked out the door that he didn't want to see the National Guard deployed. 

Biden also said the protests didn't change his thinking on Middle East policy.  

President Joe Biden finally spoke out about the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses Thursday 

Cops face-off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles

Biden spoke after police brawled with protesters while smashing through barricades at UCLA's Gaza encampment after hundreds of anti-Israel students defied orders to leave. 

'We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,' Biden said. 'The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consquential issues.'

'But, but neither are we a lawless country. We are a civil society. And order must prevail,' the president continued.  

At UCLA, California Highway Patrol officers wearing face shields and protective vests went face-to-face with protesters clad with shields.

As of Thursday morning the encampment was cleared after a tense overnight standoff between anti-Israel protesters and police.

Officers ripped apart an umbrella one activist tried to use as a shield while the crowd chanted 'peaceful protest.'

'Leave the campus, this is a f*****g school. This is a f*****g school, what are you doing, this is a school, we f*****g learn. I got to learn about public health,' one protester shouted.

An anti-Israel protesters is arrested after police destroy part of the encampment barricade

Police arrest a demonstrator as they clear out the UCLA Gaza encampment

At New York's Columbia University, where students broke into Hamilton Hall and raised a banner that read 'intifada' - a term that encourages violence against Jews and Israelis - the NYPD were called Tuesday. 

Several White House spokespeople criticized the Hamilton Hall takeover and condemned the antisemitism coming out of the protest movement but it took until Thursday for Biden to directly address the students' actions.

In the meantime, Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton pushed Biden to personally condemn the 'hate-filled little Gazas,' pushing that college campuses have turned into 'disgusting cesspools of antisemitic hate full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics and freaks.' 

'Let's be clear about this as well. There should be no place on any campus. No place in America. For antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,' Biden said Thursdsay. 

'There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind. Whether it's antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It's simply wrong. There's no place for racism in America,' Biden reiterated. 

A top Jewish group on Columbia's campus reported that Jewish students were being told to 'go back to Poland' and 'stop killing children' by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. 

'I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions,' Biden said. 'In America we respect the right and protect the right for them to express that.'

'But it doesn't mean anything goes,' Biden warned. 

'It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate and within the law,' the president said.