UC Berkeley ReInvites Ann Coulter, But There’s a Catch…

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By Kody Fairfield

Officials at the University of California at Berkeley on Thursday reversed their decision to cancel a speech by conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, reports the Washington Post (WaPo).

RELATED: UC Berkeley Cancels Ann Coulter’s Speech Fearing More Violent Protests

The university had previously announced Wednesday that it was canceling Coulter’s appearance following several political protests in Berkeley that turned violent. But on Thursday, the university said it had found a venue where it could hold the speech on a different day, May 2, instead of the original April 27 date, said WaPo.

According to the report, Coulter and the organizing group on campus are refusing the new invitation.

Coulter then took to Twitter to share her displeasure with the school.

A leader of the college Republican group that invited Coulter also said his group planned to reject the new terms and alleged that the university is placing strict conditions on the event, according to WaPo.

A Berkeley spokesman has responded attempting to push back on the claims that the university is placing unreasonable restrictions on Coulter’s event. The one main request the university made in extending their new invitation was to hold the event in the afternoon, said Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof. Holding the event later in the day would risk protests and potential violence stretching into the evening when the campus tends to get crowded with commuters and students, said WaPo.

In their offer to Coulter to host her speech on campus on the new date, Mogulof said, according to WaPo, that the university has asked for the event to end by 3 p.m. or 3:30 p.m.

“Everything we’re doing is so the speaker and students can actually exercise their rights without disruption,” Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said. “It’s hard to understand this display of disdain and disregard for the assessment of law enforcement professionals, particularly when their primary concern is the safety and well-being of college students.”

Prior to the new invitation, Coulter had made mention that she fully intended to move forward and host her speech, in the face of the rescinded first invitation.

“What are they going to do? Arrest me?” she said late Wednesday on the Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” explained WaPo.

Coulter said she “called their bluff” by agreeing to rules set by the university seeking to prevent violence.

University officials originally sent a letter canceling the event to a campus Republican group that invited Coulter to speak. In it, university officials said Wednesday that they made the decision to cancel Coulter’s appearance after assessing the violence that flared on campus in February, when the same college Republican group invited right-wing provocateur and now-former Breitbart News senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak. As the protest and clashes escalated during the Yiannopoulos’s event, some began setting fires, throwing rocks and molotov cocktails and attacking members of the crowd, said WaPo.

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