Today President Joe Biden gave a short address on the spreading campus protests and violence over the war in Gaza. In doing so, he had an awfully fine line to walk, since both the Palestinians and the Israelis have valid views and political positions that are worth respecting. So he tried to thread this needle very carefully in his prepared statement.

But instead of commenting at length on Biden's remarks, today I am just going to present them unedited. Personally, I have not written about the situation in Gaza, Israel, or on American college campuses because I find I can sympathize with both sides' arguments to some degree or another. Which translates to: "I don't have anything profound to add to the conversation either way." Perhaps this is a cop-out, but the way I see it is that both sides certainly have a point -- but also that neither side is completely blameless.

I do find it interesting to note the role of the media in all this. Campus protests happen frequently (at least on the college campuses near me), and they rarely rate more than a quick mention on local television news. Almost never do they rise to the level of national coverage. But for some reason the national media zoomed in on the initial protest at Columbia University and have been featuring protests on dozens of other campuses nightly -- often as the lead story. Without such a glaring media spotlight, perhaps things wouldn't have gotten so overheated, but that's pure speculation on my part I will admit -- because it is impossible to really tell.

In any case, what with such sensationalistic media coverage, the president pretty much had to address the situation in some manner or another. He did so by attempting to stand strongly for the rights of people to peacefully protest while also denouncing lawless behavior, violence, and antisemitism. You'll have to decide for yourself how well he walked this tightrope.

Here are his full remarks, taken from the official White House transcript.

[Editorial notes: I did consider removing extraneous remarks (such as: "Excuse me" before Biden coughed), but decided to leave them all intact, since there weren't that many of them. I did change the parsing of the statement, since the White House always seems to enjoy giving almost every sentence its own paragraph in their transcripts -- which I personally find rather annoying to read.]

[Remarks by President Biden on Recent Events on College Campuses]

Before I head to North Carolina, I wanted to speak a few moments about what's going on on our college campuses here. We've all seen the images. And they put to the test two fundamental American principles.

Excuse me. [coughs]

The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.

We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But -- but neither are we a lawless country. We are a civil society, and order must prevail.

Throughout our history, we've often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse, free-thinking, and freedom-loving nation. In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isn't a moment for politics. It's a moment for clarity.

So, let me be clear. Peaceful protest in America -- violent protest is not protected; peaceful protest is. It's against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It's against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations -- none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It's against the law.

Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others, so students can finish the semester and their college education. Look, it's basically a matter of fairness. It's a matter of what's right.

There's the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.

But let's be clear about this as well. There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it's antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It's simply wrong. There is no place for racism in America. It's all wrong. It's un-American.

I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions. In America, we respect the right and protect the right for them to express that. But it doesn't mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate, and within the law.

You know, make no mistake: As President, I will always defend free speech. And I will always be just as strong in standing up for the rule of law. That's my responsibility to you, the American people, and my obligation to the Constitution.

Thank you very much.

After giving this address, Biden answered two questions shouted out to him by the reporters:

"Mr. President, have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region?" and: "Mr. President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?"

President Biden answered each of these questions with a single word: "No."

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant