Famed conservative journalist who hates Trump says Biden's weak stance on campus chaos is hammering final nails into president's re-election campaign

Biden's weak stance on students' pro Palestine protests will spell disaster for him at the polls, a famed conservative journalist has warned.

Andrew Sullivan says Biden's lackluster approach to campus chaos is enough to see him booted from the White House.

This combined with 'chaotic' border policies and Biden's stance on transgender rights will be enough to snuff out any chances of re-election, according to Sullivan, a gay conservative journalist.

'Biden is losing this election, deservedly,' he wrote on his Substack. 'And if he cannot pull off an almighty pivot — and I suspect at this point, he really can't — this election really is Trump's to lose.' 

Outlining his reasoning, he pointed to the student protests over the Vietnam war in 1968 which are largely blamed for costing the Democrats in the election of Richard Nixon.

Biden's weak stance on students' pro Palestine protests will spell disaster for him at the polls, a famed conservative journalist has warned

Andrew Sullivan says Biden's lackluster approach to campus chaos is enough to see him booted from the White House

Pro Palestine protesters, such as these at UCLA, have been clashing with police all week in violent scenes reminiscent of the student demonstrations against the Vietnam war

Sullivan, who is a staunch critic of Donald Trump, now fears the ex-president will be able to capitalize on Biden's oversights to get back into office. 

'This is how you re-elect Trump: keep pandering to the far left, suck up to wealthy college grads, allow millions of fraudulent "asylum-seekers" to enter the country, insist that men are women, discriminate against whites and Asians and men, while constantly appearing as merely reacting to events rather than creating new political realities,' Sullivan wrote.

His comments echoed those by Stephen Collinson, a political analyst for left-wing CNN.

'President Joe Biden can ill afford a long, hot summer of protest that comes to a boil in time for the Democratic National Convention in August and then bleeds into the final weeks of an already venomous clash with Donald Trump,' he wrote.

More than 76 universities have seen pro Palestine protests crop up in recent weeks and more than 2,000 activists have been arrested.

On Thursday, Biden finally addressed the escalating turmoil, following scenes of protesters destroying university property and replacing Old Glory with the Palestinian flag.

However, he was careful not to further alienate progressive voters who have already become disillusioned with his stance on the war in Gaza.

'I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions,' he said.

California Highway Patrol officers clear a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at UCLA. Biden finally issued a statement on the unrest on Thursday

CHP officer detains a protester at UCLA on May 2. Sullivan warned Biden's comments were not strong enough and too late

A skirmish during a pro Palestine rally at Rutgers University, New Jersey. A student encampment had been set up at the campus in scenes reminiscent of many across the country

Georgia State Patrol officers detain a demonstrator on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration, Thursday, April 25, 2024

'In America, we respect the right and protect the right for them to express that. But it doesn't mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate, and within the law.' 

By contrast, Trump took a harsher stance blasting the protesters for disrupting learning and order, denouncing hem as 'raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers'.

'To every college president, I say remove the encampments, immediately. Vanquish the radicals, and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn,' he told a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Wednesday.

Addressing the comments, Sullivan said: 'It was fine so far as it went, but it was given only when he had no choice, after Trump goaded him [...] He was reactive, not proactive. His quiet words were overwhelmed with the noise of the streets.'

Sullivan said Biden's 'extreme left' stances on abortion and transgender rights - including backing so-called 'gender-affirming care' for children are further alienating voters.

The journalist and some other prominent gay figures have said aspects of trans orthodoxy are homophobic because they encourage children who are struggling to come to terms with being gay to believe that they're actually trans - and undergo irreversible medical procedures.  

Protesters have clashed with police at UCLA, Columbia, CUNY and Emory University among others in the last few weeks.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders warned that Biden could be headed for a similar fate as Lyndon B Johnson, who saw his Democrat support dissolve over the Vietnam War and resulting student protests.

Johnson was forced to withdraw from his reelection bid and his successor Hubert H. Humphrey went on to lose to Nixon.

In terms of his campaign, you know, I am thinking back and other people are making this reference that this may be Biden’s Vietnam,' Sanders told CNN.

Columbia University protesters smashed windows, upended furniture and caused damage throughout Hamilton Hall amid their brief occupation

Members of the NYPD surround and breach Hamilton Hall where demonstrators barricaded themselves inside on the Columbia University campus on April 30, 2024 in New York City

'Lyndon Johnson, in many respects, was a very, very good president. He chose not to run in ‘68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam.' 

Meanwhile, a forecaster who has predicted every presidential winner correctly for the last 40 years also identified the campus protests as a potential weak spot for Biden.

Allan Lichtman said that social unrest is one of the keys which could cause Biden's demise. 

Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington, DC, devised a system, which he terms '13 Keys', to the White House and wrote a 1980s book explaining the idea.

However, he still insisted that 'a lot would have to go wrong' for Biden to lose to Trump in November.