A White House correspondent was arrested Tuesday after an altercation during his speech at the University of Connecticut.
Lucian Wintrich, who is a blogger for right-wing Gateway Pundit, was invited to speak at the Storrs school by UConn’s College Republicans. In his speech, titled “It’s OK to Be White”, Wintrich spoke about identity politics, liberal victimhood and anti-conservative bias, reports CNN.
Some of the estimated 350 attendees booed and interrupted Wintrich throughout his speech. Some yelled, “Go home, Nazi!” and “Black lives matter”.
About an hour into his speech, a video shows a woman approach Wintrich’s lectern, take a piece of paper from it and walk away. Wintrich is then seen following the woman, pulling at her backpack and attempting to retrieve the piece of paper. Others intervened and attempted to pull Wintrich off the woman.
The 29-year-old was taken into police custody and was charged with misdemeanor breach of peace. Students ran after the police car as it drove him away, reports The Washington Post.
Wintrich was released Tuesday night on a $1,000 bond.
“It’s really unfortunate that some of the kids at @UConn felt the need to be violent and disruptive during a speech that focused on how the leftist media is turning Americans against each other. Tonight proved my point,” Wintrich tweeted after his arrest.
Wintrich also tweeted that he will seek legal action against the university and the woman who stole his property.
University spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz says police are reviewing video footage to determine if other arrests will be made.
A student was also arrested for breaking a window and campus police are investigating who threw a smoke bomb inside the building as the crowd was dispersing.
Many of the signs put up around the campus to promote the event were taken down or altered, according to the host group’s Facebook page.
During his speech, Wintrich showed a picture of a white man in Renaissance clothing, stating there is less acceptance of the traditional clothing of white cultures than of other races.
Wintrich then accused liberals of “wanting black people to dress like they did in Africa 300 years ago”. He also showed a photo of women in burqas, stating, “The left wants them to seem like visual advertisers for their multicultural utopia they’re claiming to promote.”
That is when The Courant, a paper that was covering the speech, says the altercation began.
Several weeks ago, Wintrich was scheduled to speak at UMass Boston. The group who was hosting the event backed out, stating they were not comfortable once Wintrich began publicizing the event and needed more time to plan. The talk is now scheduled for this spring.
Gateway Pundit was given credentials to attend White House briefings in February. The blog gets millions of pageviews each month.