Former President Joe Biden was escorted into a waiting vehicle Tuesday as pro-Palestinian protesters threw milk and other objects at him and former first lady Jill Biden outside Trinity College Dublin, according to Irish media reports.
Gardaí arrested two people at the Dublin university, where the Bidens had watched their son Hunter Biden accept the College Historical Society’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution for Public Discourse. Irish outlet RTÉ reported that some in the crowd moved forward and threw objects as the vehicles carrying the family moved through the college’s front square.
Demonstrators had gathered over the former president’s record on Gaza. They chanted at the 83-year-old Democrat on his way in and again on his way out.
“Blood on your hands,” protesters shouted, according to TMZ. Others chanted “shame on you” and “Genocide Joe.”
Roughly six gardaí moved on two demonstrators, Irish news outlet The Journal reported, and both ended up on the ground. One was struck with a baton while officers held him down, footage of the scene shows.
Harper Alderson, editor of Trinity’s University Times, claimed on RTÉ’s Drivetime that gardaí used pepper spray on two of the demonstrators.
“The protest grew very large as the cars were moving through front square of the college,” she said.
Inside the Examination Hall, the pardoned first son, who in September launched a meme cryptocurrency built on the laptop scandal, had turned his acceptance speech to the war.
“All of the people arguing whether to call it genocide. Let’s call it mass murder,” Hunter Biden said, arguing that what is happening in Gaza is “absolutely and completely wrong.”
He then defended his father’s record on the war.
“I know this man, and I know he attempted more than anyone to curtail and stop it,” the younger Biden insisted.
His father, seated in the front row, led the room in a standing ovation when the speech ended.
Joe Biden pardoned his son in December 2024, weeks before handing the White House to President Donald Trump, wiping away three felony gun convictions in Delaware and a guilty plea on federal tax charges in California.
The former president’s memoir, Promise Me, America, is due Nov. 17. He has said he would scale back promotion of the book while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, which his son confirmed in August had spread further throughout his body.
The Journal described the former president as frail and slow on his feet, waving to a handful of students as he went.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.