Last week, conservative federal judge, Kyle Duncan was set to speak at Stanford University as part of an event put on by the Federalist Society but couldn’t because a mob of leftist students - with aid from the associate dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - shouted him down. But according to the cackling coven on ABC’s The View on Monday, Republicans in Congress were to blame because they heckled President Biden at the State of the Union.
“Federal Judge Kyle Duncan's appearance at Stanford University Law School was met with many loud and angry student protesters, and the school's associate dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion eventually stepped in to give her take on the situation,” Whoopi Goldberg teed up a video of associate dean Tirien Steinbach scolding Duncan at the event.
Goldberg scoffed at how “the university sent Judge Duncan an apology letter claiming staff and students acted inappropriately” and suggested Congressional Republicans were to blame:
But I think back to the State of the Union and this is what we're teaching people to do, we're teaching people how to be inappropriate. Yelling at the president of the United States. Calling him a liar. Doing all these things that now our students are saying, “well, if it's okay for you to do it and you're supposed to be a lawmaker, I feel the same way because this is my right.”
Goldberg conveniently ignored how Democrats routinely used former President Trump’s State of the Union addresses to protest, heckle, and make statements. It was also a display of ignorance since radical liberal students shouting down conservative speakers pre-dates the pandemic, which we’ll touch on further down.
“So, maybe all the snowflakes in the world need to get over the fact that people are going to disagree with them,” Goldberg whined. “It's not just one side or the other. Everybody has to understand this is how -- this is how we live. We don't all agree. We do disagree…”
Racist Sunny Hostin bloviated about free speech and what she supposedly learned in law school; not to critique the way the liberal students assailed an invited speaker, but to scold Duncan for refusing to be treated with disrespect:
For me what was so offensive is that one of the first classes you take in law school in constitutional law teaches you about the freedom of speech. And college and law school is a wonderful place to have this exchange of ideas. It gets heated sometimes.
(…)
And that's the part that I like. I like the Q&A. I mean, you know, come at me. Let's have those discussions because that is what the free exchange of ideas is about. We have a clip of what this judge when he was exercising his free speech said to one of the students.
She also took issue with Duncan calling one student an “appalling idiot” after the student shouted in his face. “I think that's beneath the dignity of a judge,” she snarked. “This is a federal judge. He should be able to use his words pretty well.”
Circling back to liberal students shouting down conservative speakers, Hostin’s undergrad alma mater, Binghamton University (where this author also attended undergrad) was the center of a similar free speech controversy in 2019, when conservative economist Art Laffer was shouted down at an event hosted by the local College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation.
The university was sued for violating Laffer’s freedom of speech because University Police took too long to eject the disrupters. “Laffer was removed from the lecture hall, unable to continue the event,” The Press & Sun-Bulletin (the local paper) reported in 2020. “Members of [a progressive student group] attended the event and contributed to the disruption, according to the lawsuit, which also argues University Police took no preventive action.”
The View’s support for shouting down conservative speakers on university campuses was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Neutrogena and JCPenney. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 20, 2023
11:21:37 a.m. EasternWHOOPI GOLDBERG: Federal Judge Kyle Duncan's appearance at Stanford University Law School was met with many loud and angry student protesters, and the school's associate dean of diversity equity and inclusion eventually stepped in to give her take on the situation.
(…)
11:22: 45 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: So, the university sent Judge Duncan an apology letter claiming staff and students acted inappropriately.
But I think back to the State of the Union and this is what we're teaching people to do, we're teaching people how to be inappropriate. Yelling at the president of the United States. Calling him a liar. Doing all these things that now our students are saying, “well, if it's okay for you to do it and you're supposed to be a lawmaker, I feel the same way because this is my right.”
So, maybe all the snowflakes in the world need to get over the fact that people are going to disagree with them. You see?
It's not just one side or the other. Everybody has to understand this is how -- this is how we live. We don't all agree. We do disagree and it's your right to stand up and say, “hey, I don't agree” and then let either -- leave or let somebody else tell you what the issue is, but we don't show our kids that. We show them the nasty part now.
(…)
11:24:27 a.m. Eastern
SUNNY HOSTIN: For me what was so offensive is that one of the first classes you take in law school in constitutional law teaches you about the freedom of speech. And college and law school is a wonderful place to have this exchange of ideas. It gets heated sometimes.
I speak around the country and so do you a lot. You teach a class. You speak around the country. We all do.
And that's the part that I like. I like the Q&A. I mean, you know, come at me. Let's have those discussions because that is what the free exchange of ideas is about. We have a clip of what this judge when he was exercising his free speech said to one of the students.
[Cuts to video]
LEFT-WING HECKLER: You don't respect [unintelligible]. It's disgusting. It’s disgusting.
JUDGE KYLE DUNCAN: You are an appalling idiot. You are an appalling idiot.
[Cuts back to live]
HOSTIN: So, he called her an “appalling idiot.” I think that's beneath the dignity of a judge. I think when you have a younger law student come to you – and I've had some of them really kind of heckle me and attack me. And I'm like, all right, “you done? Let me respond.” That's the free exchange of ideas that we should have seen here and he couldn’t do it.
(…)
11:26:45 a.m. Eastern
HOSTIN: This is a federal judge. He should be able to use his words pretty well.
ANA NAVARRO: Listen, if you don't want to get challenged, if you don’t want to get heckled, go to a Republican convention, don't go to a college.
(…)
