(RepublicanReport.org) – Graduation season is well underway in America and colleges are hosting big-named speakers to give the commencement speech. Administrators at Morehouse College in Atlanta invited President Joe Biden to speak to the graduating class, where several of them turned their backs on him as he spoke.
On May 19, the president spoke for nearly 30 minutes to the graduating seniors at the all-male university. Biden assured them that he heard their cries for peace in Gaza, stating he “called for an immediate cease-fire.” The US leader said the issue in the Middle East was one of the most difficult and “complicated problems in the world.”
Biden said what’s happening over there breaks his heart, and he knows it breaks theirs as well. As he spoke, the Associated Press reported that seven graduates and one faculty member sat with their backs to the president. The New York Times reported that several students walked out.
Morehouse’s valedictorian, DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, also mentioned Gaza during his speech, stating there must be an “immediate and permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.” Biden, who was on stage at the time, clapped with agreement to the valedictorian’s words. Biden spent the majority of his time on stage talking about democracy, the Black community, issues in America, and what it means to be a man. He told the graduates that manhood was about “strength, “respect,” and “dignity” — not toxicity.
When news circulated that Biden would be delivering the commencement speech, some Morehouse alumni members balked at the idea, condemning the administrators for the invitation. They accused Biden of supporting genocide, stating his apparent actions opposed Martin Luther King Jr.’s pacifism. While the letter did collect some signatures, it wasn’t enough to sway the university president about having the president speak.
During the commencement, Biden was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
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