In the wake of Turning Point USA founder and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk being murdered by an assassin in Utah, many leftists have been caught online celebrating Kirk’s death, and even calling for others to do the same. Amongst those who did so were a collection of three staff members at Clemson, all of whom praised the murder and one of whom called for further assassinations to occur.
Despite that fact, despite the clear evidence that staff members at the university were not just celebrating the cold-blooded assassination but actively encouraging more such killings to happen, Clemson University refused to fire them and claimed their celebration of violence was “free speech.”
Drawing attention to the matter was the Clemson University College Republicans X account, which wrote, “IT ONLY GETS WORSE: a THIRD member of @ClemsonUniv Faculty has been found spouting EGREGIOUS hate on his social media after Kirk’s assassination. This is the worst one yet! Robin Newberry has been at Clemson for decades in the position of Asbestos Program Manager, where he makes a six-figure salary. However, he slipped up. The photo on his LinkedIn matches with one he posted to his Facebook, where all of his most vicious posts can be seen. THIS WILL NOT END UNTIL ACTION IS TAKEN. @ClemsonPrez”
In one of the Facebook posts at issue, the one that was probably the most horrific, Newberry called for leftists to murder people with whom they disagreed, referencing the killers of Kirk and United Healthcare CEO Briath Thompson, writing, “In a world full of Charlie Kirks and Brian Thompsons, be a Tyler Robinson or a Luigi Mangione.”
Clemson refused to fire Newberry, despite his calling for conservatives to be murdered, or the other two individuals on its staff who celebrated the murder of Charlie Kirk. Instead it released a milquetoast statement saying that the glorification of murdering conservatives is free speech and allowed on its campus.
It wrote, “Clemson University unequivocally condemns any and all expressions that endorse, glorify or celebrate political violence. The deeply inappropriate remarks made on social media in response to the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk are reprehensible and do not reflect the University values and principles that define our University community.”
Continuing, Clemson said, “We stand firmly on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of free speech. However, that right does not extend to speech that incites harm or undermines the dignity of others. We will take appropriate action for speech that constitutes a genuine threat which is not protected by the Constitution.”
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It concluded, seemingly blaming conservatives as well as the violent left, “This is an opportunity for each of us to stop and consider our core values of mutual respect, integrity and personal responsibility. At Clemson we expect our community to treat each other respectfully. Our foremost priority remains the safety and well-being of our community. We are committed to preserving the integrity of the Clemson experience and ensuring our campus remains a place of respect, learning and shared purpose.”
The school later followed up with a statement in which it said that one of the staff members at issue was being temporarily suspended, not fired, and it didn’t identify which staff member that was. It otherwise stood by its stance not to fire the officials who were calling for horrific things, which infuriated conservatives.
As could be expected, the outrage online that Clemson University was protecting a professor calling for murder. Rep. Thomas Beach, for example, a South Carolina State Congressman, called for the state legislature to defund the university, saying, “They’re not firing them. So we’re going to have to defund Clemson. Does that sound fair?”
Rep. Beach also wrote, “I don’t think people understand what Clemson has done here. Sanctioning the celebration of political violence shuts down the possibility of free speech on campus. It’s the definition of a chilling effect on free speech. Conservative students and faculty are not safe at Clemson.” He added, in a quote tweet, “And for people saying that Defund Clemson is cancel culture–murdering someone in cold blood for voicing conservative opinions on a college campus is cancel culture.”
Similarly, the South Carolina Freedom Caucus said, “SC deserves better than inaction in the face of evil. A law to stop indoctrination of our college students is long overdue. We call for a special session of the SC Legislature to pass H3927 and rescind budget appropriations for Clemson University.”
Also chiming in was gubernatorial candidate Ralph Norman, who said, “We are having to fight a taxpayer-funded school over employees whose salary is funded by taxpayers because the school won’t fire said taxpayer-funded employees for supporting political violence. The taxpayers and students deserve better!”
Further, Congressman Russell Fry said, “Clemson is not above accountability. The arrogance and dismissive attitude we are seeing is unacceptable. South Carolina taxpayers deserve better than to see their hard-earned money wasted on a university that prioritizes woke politics over students.”
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Charlie Kirk & Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134984195