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House speaker to visit Columbia University, call for president's resignation amid ongoing protests
CBSN
Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson is visiting Columbia University on Wednesday, where he's expected to call for the university's president to resign as the campus has been roiled with accusations of antisemitism amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests.
Johnson said in an interview on "The Hugh Hewitt" show Wednesday morning that he plans to call on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign, saying Shafik "has shown to be a very weak, inept leader." GOP Reps. Mike Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis of New York are slated to join the speaker on Wednesday.
The speaker's remarks are set to focus on "the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America's college campuses," according to a statement from his office. He's set to speak Wednesday afternoon, after meeting with Jewish students.
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More than 2 million federal employees face a looming deadline: By midnight on Thursday, they must decide whether to accept a "deferred resignation" offer from the Trump administration. If workers accept, according to a White House plan, they would continue getting paid through September but would be excused from reporting for duty. But if they opt to keep their jobs, they could get fired.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.