Allen West Says He Was Escorted Off University Campus By Police After ‘Militant’ Mob Disrupted His Speech

Former Texas GOP Chair Lt. Col. Allen West said protesters wno interrupted his speech on race at the University at Buffalo last week were “radical” and “militant.” He told Brian Kilmeade he had to be escorted off campus by the police, and the “radical” group then turned on conservative students.

West was speaking at the invitation of the Young America’s for Foundation, the president of which said things got so tense that she actually “feared” for her life.

For West’s part, the former Florida congressman described the protesters as a “militant” mob, which prompted police escorts for West, who said he was a bit shocked at the response to a Black man speaking about race.

“As a matter of fact, they were very disruptive, and I think people have seen now that it was a mob, it was radical, it was militant, and I had to be escorted off of the campus by police officers,” he told Fox’s The Brian Kilmeade Show on Tuesday. “And then after that, they turned their angst against many of those conservative students that were there who had invited me to come and speak.”

In West’s speech, he argued America is not a systematically racist country and used his own success as an example of this. The talk was titled America is Not Racist: Why American Values are Exceptional.

“Who better that they think could do that than someone such as myself who was born in a Blacks-only hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, 61 years ago?” West said of the activists pushing back against his presence. Young Americas’ for Freedom President Therese Purcell previously claimed she feared for her life at the event in an interview with Fox & Friends.

“I was really afraid for my life since they physically assaulted my friend, and like I said, they were screaming, no peace,” she said. Purcell added that she eventually hid in a bathroom and dialed 911 for help.

West described being a bit shocked at needing a police escort on the college campus, arguing the behavior of the screaming protesters doesn’t solve anything.

“Here I am having to be escorted off a university campus and being screamed at by Black students who still want to talk about how they’re oppressed. How does their behavior solve anything?” he said.

The University at Buffalo said in a statement that they are “conducting a thorough review” of West’s time at the university. Members of the university have a right to express themselves, they added, but “not in such a way as to limit or prevent the speaker’s freedom of expression or interfere with university operations.”