Speaker. She bluffing lets go out front and good evening. Im Erin Burnett Outfront tonight. The Breaking News Protesters and police facing off as tensions are running high at universities across the United States tonight colleges and universities are now cracking down and propalestinian protesters who have taken over some of the campus this is let me just show you some of the dramatic live pictures what youre looking at here. This massive crowd is in texas, police in riot gear can be seen moving in earlier, tearing down barriers and forcefully arresting students. This was the university of texas at austin. Those students have been camped out on campus and at least 40 students we understand at ut austin were reportedly taken into custody meantime, in new york, protesters are defining a mandatory deadline to tear down bear and camp min and Columbia University it gave the students until 2 00 this afternoon to pack it in, and they did not they defied that order. So now we are learning this our unclear what the Security Situation is. And a lot of questions about that at this moment, but we are learning that the university has actively suspending students. As i speak. This is a tinderbox. Moments ago was student was flying a massive israeli flag over propalestinian protesters the. Man holding the flag telling cnn hes been harassed and assaulted on campus. And as i mentioned, these protests have been spreading. It is now coasttocoast, california to boston. At the white house, the administration is now watching very closely so far those still refusing to weigh in on whether the students should be disciplined for disrupting schedules, classes and Graduation Plans so gotta be super super mindful. These are institutions, some of them are private, some of them are public. And it is up to their leadership, University Leadership and colleges to make that decision. Not going to weigh in on that from here meanwhile, the israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is now asking President Biden to come to his rescue according to reporting, an axios right Now And Then Yahoo Asked Biden to stop the International Criminal court from issuing Arrest Warrants for senior israeli officials, including possibly in netanyahu himself, who have played a role in the war in gaza. The icc has been investigating possible war crimes by both Israeli Forces and Palestinian Militants now, if the icc were to issue an arrest warrant, for example, for Prime Minister netanyahu well, more than 120 countries have signed on to the icc, which would place Travel Restrictions on netanyahu that would be incredibly significant. We have a team of reporters standing by to begin our breaking coverage. This our omar jimenez is at columbia in new york, ed lavendera is at the university of texas at austin, where we were showing you some of those dramatic pictures where you are at, you witnessed it that situation where you are appears to be growing increasingly tense. Can you tell us whats happening i will now were kind of at a standoff where the crowd that you see behind me is basically just to confronting a number of offices and now theyre shooting squarely into the cloud so type your second were trying to get people to to disperse so that just happened those officers firing pepper spray, it appears or some sort of spray the protests are gathered here just moments ago, aaron, in this area, are there had been a bus that was taken some of the people who had been arrested earlier this is one of the protesters hit the pepper spray were calling for medics trying to keep an eye, excuse me, are and were trying to do exactly whats going behind me. But this is an area where the bus that was taken away several of the protesters many these protesters were blocking the. Blockings people assigned to block excuse me, the the bus leaving the area, but till we saw more than a dozen protesters that were arrested seven, taken away in that last we are told that theyre probably been taking Downtown Process and we have also seen this group of protesters its also essentially trying to push a Law Enforcement off of Campus Chance of good off of our campus have been extensive for some time. However, those pluses are now gone. Exactly how, whats going to unfold here is unclear how we are willing to almost six hours of this protest that has been going on for quite some time. And here just in the last few seconds, we tried to like peek back in, figure out exactly why theyre Weither The Question is, erin is what exactly theyre going to do with this crowd at this point the protesters were essentially champion trying to get officers to go to leave the campus of the officers have formed a line. Essentially, if he walked back this way, whod end so back generally in the area where this protest are starting earlier today. So a standoff here as officers essentially at this point i dont know if theyre trying to figure out an exit strategy, how to get out of the, out of the campus and away from these protesters were how to defuse the situation. But are we will continue to monitor here as the the minutes and hours progress. So ed, i know we just saw that young man behind you who appeared to have been hit by the pepper spray or whatever sort of Chemical Agent it was that they were they were spraying that Law Enforcement. But when you look behind you, when you talk about a standoff can you describe for us i mean, how many people are there and how Many Police Officers and what i mean, i guess, you know, are they in riot gear . Can you describe exactly what this face off looks like actually the officers that are just on the other side of that crowd from what i could tell him. Last time was able to get a better Vantage Point. It was officers on bison the goals and those are the officers that have actually been used to kind of create barriers to keep people away from the other officers, either taking people into custody or moving people around the campus so those officers are not decked out in helmets and protective gear like we have seen from the Stage Troopers that were here earlier. In fact, a large bus full of State Troopers that were wearing the right gear, if you will, left about an hour ago on a city a city bus that was used to bring them onto the Campus Grounds here. So these are not those officers. In fact, i believe these are Ut Police PoliceDepartment Office so these are officers that this is their their jurisdiction. This is where they went patrol and this is their beetles essentially i can imagine that those officers are going are going anywhere. Now. Theyre also austin Police Officers over here and the distance. Its been awhile since ive seen any State Troopers they still might be around here as well but its a rather large crowd and they have really havent figured out a way to get them disbursed at this . Yes. So you . Have. Any anyway, you could tell us or the scale of how many people are there. And im also curious because there was that sort of people running away are moving quickly when you first came up, right . And they were sprayed with some sort of pepper spray as you described or something similar, it appeared any sense as to what caused that. And but obviously because it now seems to meet everyones black to chanting and back to their positions right . So there was a car a police car that made its way out this way. So my guess at this point is that the officers were pushing people back to be able to he will one of the Police Vehicles to exit a few this wrote over here, they were trying to push the proud back. Clearly we saw that that spray that was fired, but it that was very close Perimeter Spray that was used. It was it like a volley of tear gas or enqueue my guy. So the people who were hit one in the immediate vicinity of those through so theres just a matter of inches that are separating those protesters who have been chanting for hours now at the, at these officers were probably about to ten, 15 yards behind that. All right. And were going to keep checking in with you. Is that situation develops obviously, you know, minute by minute there at the university of texas at austin. But you can just get a sense of the crowds there where ed is and how difficult it was even for those Police Officers . To move that they were spraying pepper spray to be able to move that car. Is that describes it will get back to Ed In A Moment as that develops, i want to go now to omar jimenez because hes at columbia in upper new york and Omar Columbia has laid down the law. Everyone had to get out, get out of that tent encampment, which is in one corner of the quad is i saw it the other day but protesters, at least from what we understand, have not moved. What are you seeing right now . Yes so were seeing a. Combination of things just for the viewers watching, overseeing behind this is very small, handful of protesters outside of columbias campus. So these protesters are separate from the Encampment Led Protests that weve been seeing on campus. And yes, as you mentioned, there was a two pm deadline today for those for those students to voluntarily leave that camp min or face suspension, many did not leave. In fact, many of them chose to take part in a separate protests in circling that encampment as one student told me to stop University Officials from coming in Even University to the professors and faculty linked arms at the entrance to the encampment in support of some of those students. All that said the campus is now levying suspensions as they told us, they are starting to hand those out. They also said theres a further disciplinary process for others that theyre reviewing, but those suspensions are coming. We are in there just just about an hour or so ago, a little bit more than that ago as suspensions were first being handed out and there were still protesters inside of there. So it remains to be seen from a university perspective, what happens if, even if suspensions are coming through, if they choose to still not leave because as a University Said this morning, they do not believe calling an nypd again is productive. But the question is, for how long would that last . All right . Well, well check in with you as well. Omar, is the situation develops their universities to make a decision what theyre gonna do. Let them stay or call and police. I mean, youre again a standoff. All right. Thank you very much. And i want to go now, how to a chin thea shoveling gum. Shes a Princeton UniversityGraduate Student who was arrested at a propalestinian encampment on campus at princeton, and as we just been talking about those columbia students now being suspended cynthia is now barred from princeton pending a disciplinary review. So i can thank you for coming in. So i want to just just start here. Now youre seeing what happened was happening tonight. The pepper spray at utaustin youre telling me i understand its been more rest at princeton in the past few moments. Weve got video of your arrest. Your hands, or ziptied it from what it appears were gonna show everybody. This is u at the encampment and princeton, when you arrested the University Says you were given repeated warnings to exit the area. You chose not to do so. Thats why they arrested you. What happened in that moment and what do you understand is happening . Right now in that moment, what happened was a group of autonomous students decided that Princeton Universitys investments in the apartheid state of israel, which is now conducting a genocide with that money, shouldnt remain. So we shouldnt profit off of a genocide. And so we came together and we decided to protest peacefully. In in consultation with other universities across the United States. And we wanted to make a stance that what Princeton University and the institutions here Higher Education institutions in the us government, or investments in the way that were looking at israel. And the genocide that were committing isnt right. All right, so the night before so arrested princeton released a statement. All right. And it reads in part, i know youve seen it, but let me just for everyone to hear, i can hear some types of protest actions, including occupying or blocking access to buildings, establishing outdoor encampments are inherently unsafe for both those involved and for bystanders. They increase the potential for escalation and confrontation. There also inconsistent with the universitys mission shin and legal obligation to provide a safe environment for all those reasons, among others, are policies explicitly prohibit sayyed, conduct theyre trying to say you can protests, but you cant camp out, you cant block buildings, you cant you cant do the encampment the way you were doing. So why was it so important for you to defy those rules as opposed to produce . Testing in another way that they would have said, okay, you have a point of view. You can you can make that known. You just cant camp out. I think whats important to remember in this context is that we were protesting peacefully. We were not causing harm, harm to anyone. We were out there setting up tents so that we could i know to bring light to the universitys investments in a genocide, theres a massive Violent Campaign happening against the gazans just last week, there was a large mass grave that was discovered outside of a hospital where people admitted outside of alshifa, where people who are admitted were killed and then thrown into this masquerade. If we were out there protesting this deep violence by peaceful measures, and the university decided to enact violence on me personally by arresting me and having people take down their tents and i dont necessarily understand them doubletap, Double Standard there. So but just when they say okay, you could have done this another way yeah. Do you feel that nobody would be paying attention unless you did it this way . Unless you divide the rules i dont want to say that we decide the rules that came out a week a day before this happened, there were encampments that were happening across the country. And i think it was important for us to show solidarity with the students of Columbia University who Being Brutalized, the students who have university of texas austin were clearly Being Brutalized and having pepper spray against them. And yeah its just important to its important to clarify what our universities are doing together, because this is a national issue, this is an issue across the United States. So one Student Protests later at columbia has gotten a National Attention and im sure youve heard about this video of him surface video that he himself had posted before the actual protests. So its not as if it was caught on candid camera. He posted this and i just want to play the operative part of the clip which youve heard. But for anyone who hasnt seen it on social media in the past couple of days. Heres commodity james zionist dont deserve to live comfortably. Let alone zionists dont deserve to live okay, that post is getting a lot of attention. Hes one of the leaders at the protest in columbia how do you react to that i think its important to say that anyone shouldnt live when were out here protesting a genocide, advocating for the rights of palestinians to live dignified in their home country yeah, thats all i have to say to that so when people say that the protest itself in what youre calling for is antisemitic. How do you respond to that . What, were talking about here is the genocide. And i know i keep coming back to that, but i would like for everyone to know that the focus of this protest is to stop killing palestinian people. And it to get our institutions to take accountability for our investments that are profiting off of the genocide of palestinian people, antisemitism is not any anything that we condone. It is a borane. I know that its a very real threat, but thats not a part of what were advocating for in fact, one of my classmates who just got arrested today is a Jewish Voice For Peace member. And he was brutalized by the administration for protesting so i think its important to consider what are institutions are doing in this moment. All right, well, it cynthia, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Next, trumps Favorite Channel tonight, force to pull a salacious story about two key potential witnesses in trumps trial, Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. But has this story already impacted the jury sitting in th