White House praises UNC frat bros who protected the American flag from anti-Israel agitators as 'admirable'

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre praised the UNC Chapel Hill fraternity brothers who defended the American flag amid campus protests about the war in Gaza.

After anti-Israel protesters replaced the American flag on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s quad and with a Palestinian flag, the local chapter of Pi Kappa Phi defended the American flag for over an hour until police were able to clear the protest and safely hoist it back on the flagpole. All the while, the frat brothers experienced profanity and middle fingers from protesters, along with water, bottles and rocks being directed at them. 

Fox News White House reporter Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre about the incident on Friday, noting that a GoFundMe has raised over half a million dollars for the fraternity to throw a “rager,” or wild party. Doocy asked if Biden would help donate like he has for other causes. 

While Jean-Pierre asserted that Americans have the right to peacefully protest, “It is not right to forcefully take down the American flag to replace it with another flag, it is not right, and so I just wanted to make that clear.”

The White House Press secretary spoke about the fraternity who defended the American flag.

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Doocy went on to ask if Biden would be interested in making a call to thank the fraternity.

“Look, protecting the American flag is admirable. I’ll leave it there,” the White House press secretary said before moving on.

The GoFundMe page spoke about the wave of protests at campuses across the country.

“Commie losers across the country have invaded college campuses to make dumb demands of weak University Administrators,” the GoFundMe page said. “But amidst the chaos, the screaming, the anti-semitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes… [who] protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde.”

UNC Chapel Hill students hold up the American flag during a campus protest on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Anti-Israel agitators replaced the American flag with the Palestinian one during the demonstration. (Parker Ali/The Daily Tar Heel)

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Fox News has spoken to multiple members of the fraternity who confronted the protesters on that campus, one of whom was Dan Stompel, a junior studying political science at UNC.

“Don’t bend the knee to these people. They want to take over. They want to just destroy what this country stands for, bring their own twisted ideology into every orifice of this country. And don’t let them do that,” Stompel told Fox News Digital. “If it really took, like, 30 dudes to stop thousands of people because we take a stand, because we don’t let it slide… If you genuinely believe in something, no other person who’s kind of wishy washy on an issue can question you.”

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Fox News’ Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.