Lucian Wintrich Speaks at NYU After Postponed Visit
White House correspondent for Gateway Pundit attended the university as a guest speaker for the NYU College Republicans.
March 23, 2017
The NYU College Republicans’ guest speaker Lucian Wintrich — a conservative White House correspondent for Gateway Pundit — was not exactly preaching to the choir, as he may have expected during his visit to NYU yesterday.
Although the majority of the approximately 60 people at the event were members of the NYUCR, there were murmurs and interjections from the audience as Wintrich strayed from on-topic accounts of his time at Bard College and his experiences in media at White House.
At one point, Wintrich pulled out a flask and began to drink.
@lucianwintrich drinks from a flask during his speech for the @NYUCR pic.twitter.com/PpNf0W3qWB
— Jemima McEvoy (@JemimaNews) March 24, 2017
Once Wintrich began deviating from his initial narrative and turned to more provocative comments, audience members began trickling from the room on the eighth floor of the Kimmel Center for University Life. Aside from one attendee who swore at NYUCR members after the event, it remained peaceful.
“Journalism is 80 percent of our job and mild performance is 20 percent,” Wintrich said to the crowd.
In an interview with WSN before the event, Wintrich said that he had not planned what he was going to address on stage. He said that the social justice warrior culture and the terms associated with this movement are too prevalent at universities, and he wanted his presence at NYU to remedy that.
“I thought [these terms] were isolated to liberal universities, but now we are seeing these terms and weird bigoted terms, such as systemic oppression — and all these weird, nonsensical terms — have become far too mainstream,” Wintrich said. “I’m going to be examining how a lot of this terrible culture has spread across very ignorant minds in western civilization.”
The NYU College Republicans had initially scheduled Wintrich to visit the university on Feb. 16, but this event was postponed by the administration due to security concerns. Vice President of Student Affairs Marc Wais said that staff from Public Safety and Student Affairs had been in consultation with the NYUCR in planning for a safe and successful event, and that both teams were on site.
“Within this context, our hope and expectation for this event, and all events here at NYU, is that a speaker will be allowed to express their views and opinions in a respectful and civil environment that will allow for an intellectual exchange of ideas,” Wais said.
Wais said that the free expression of ideas is a core principle at NYU, so the university worked to safely facilitate his visit. A Public Safety Officer at the site estimated that there were 15 to 20 officers on site, and the New York Police Department corralled the building with a number of vans hours prior to the event.
Tisch senior and NYUCR Treasurer Jack Kapulsky, who is responsible for selecting the majority of the guest speakers for the club, said that the university is applying the same security protocols that were enforced when Gavin McInnes spoke at NYU — an event at which 11 people were arrested and McInnes was maced by a protester.
“If [McInnes] was a code red, I’d say [Wintrich] is a code yellow, or a code orange at the worst,” Kapulsky said. “He is a comedian, and whenever you have a comedian, there are going to be people that hate or love the comedian — humor is so subjective and it so easily falls into the territory of controversial and offensive for some people.”
Kapulsky said that Wintrich’s visit is representative of the club’s efforts to encourage free speech on campus and diversity of opinions. He said that to create an open dialogue, NYUCR sometimes invites guest speakers who are interesting and provocative, even though the club may not necessarily endorse their views.
Wintrich believes that the main problem stemming from the left is a pseudo-intellectualism, which he describes as censorship of intellectual discourse.
“There is an absolute problem stemming from the left and these very regressive ways of thinking that is damaging young American minds and damaging intellectual discourse,” Wintrich said. “People accept these blanket terms and blanket ideas as terms and I think that it is damaging for the future generations. Hopefully I’ll help correct some of that.”
Email Jemima McEvoy at [email protected].
Veronica • Mar 25, 2017 at 5:09 am
Jeros, as a person who is quite familiar with NYUCR, I can assure you that what they desire is not an informed discussion on Republican politics. I highly doubt that they even care about the Republican Party or have the political knowledge or intellectual background for such a discussion. These kids are well aware that economic opportunities continue to diminish in the US and they are just trying to save themselves by gaining visibility and developing whatever little networks that they can. A simple comparison of their activities during and after the elections demonstrates how much they actually care about the Republican Party or President Trump. For now, they think giving a platform to trolls is the best strategy for gaining some tiny bit of power through Republican politics. Given the actual limits of their abilities, they are probably right. I am glad that the progressive students and employees have stopped taking these kids seriously and carrying them to the headlines.
Jeros • Mar 24, 2017 at 11:41 am
Most of what’s described in this article is a particularly lowbrow and unfunny form of trolling that appeals only to people looking for a quick ideological buzz.
I thought that what was done to Gavin McInnes was despicable and stupid. But seriously, at what point does intellectual value enter the equation for NYUCR? There is a pretty obvious law of diminishing marginal returns on trolls. What good does it do for your point of view to invite three of them in the same year?
I note that Charles Murray and now Lucian Wintrich were able to speak without much incident, which is good, but surely there are better choices to be made than that. Rudy Giuliani is an NYU Law grad, a former mayor, and one of Trump’s original ragtag band of supporters – perhaps reach out to him? Maybe the controversial Michael Anton? They’d definitely add more to a student’s sense of this era than the trolls would. There is a core philosophy of governance to this administration, and it’s a coherent one. You’re not going to learn about it by only focusing your invites on the Milos, Gavins, and Lucians of the world.
If you’re going to take a risk by inviting someone with points of view generally considered unacceptable on campus, make the return worthwhile.
Hannah Banana • Mar 24, 2017 at 9:12 am
I would say they should invite Khloe Kardashian next, so that the highly unattractive male members of NYUCR will have a pleasant memory. But she has more of a career than this guy, so she would probably intimidate the brilliant folks at NYUCR.
Veronica • Mar 24, 2017 at 4:24 am
We all know that the so-called NYU Repulicans are not even Republicans. They did almost nothing for Pesident Trump’s campaign. I know that many of them were hoping for a Clinton win and openly supporting her. Their tweets mocking Donald Trump and his family are still there! But since Donald Trump is the POTUS now, and these (literally and figuratively) poor kids are desperately seeking opportunities and attention, they are trying to jump on the bandwagon by inviting trolls to the campus. Another factor is that their own intellectual abilities would only allow them to engage with trolls, not with true Republican intellectuals (if they even know who they are). It is sad to see that NYU’s expansion program has affected the student quality so severely that this kind of people, Republican or otherwise, will be getting degrees from an institution that was once a reputable university.