Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was forced to pause her speech after being shouted down by three protesters during an event at Columbia University on Friday.
Clinton was trying to give the opening remarks at an event hosted by the university’s Institute of Global Politics and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. The event was held in the name of “Preventing and Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.”
“Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton,” a protester shouted out as soon as she took the podium. Clinton looked up, seemingly to meet the gaze of the protester.
“That’s my name,” Clinton responded with a smile. “That’s right.”
“You are a war criminal,” the protester went on as Clinton laughed. “The people of Libya, the people of Iraq, the people of Syria, the people of Yemen, the people of Palestine, as well as the people of America will never forgive you.”
At that point, another moderator joined the stage with a microphone of her own to talk over the protester while others escorted him out.
“You will burn,” the protester continued yelling. As he was escorted out, he chanted “Free Palestine” by himself.
As soon as he was removed, Clinton began speaking again, only to be interrupted by another protester. This time, Clinton continued speaking.
“Yelling doesn’t solve the problem,” Clinton said. “We’re going to stop a minute. You know what? Why don’t all of you just interrupt me so that you won’t be interrupting our panelists so that we don’t have this kind of disruption when we have people who are real experts in this area.”
These protesters also eventually left the vicinity, but it didn’t stop there. A third protester interrupted Clinton later in her speech, with a fourth protester yelling during the opening remarks of the U.S. United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Hillary Clinton gets heckled for a 2nd time during her speech today.
Tough crowd @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/ZOHlq27gU2
— Alex Rosen (@iFightForKids) February 9, 2024
“People are free to protest, but they are not free to disrupt events or classes, and that is going to be the standards that we follow here and going forward,” Clinton said.
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Clinton’s closing remarks went on uninterrupted.
Clinton is not new to a campus. She has worked as a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia since last year.