Conservative commentator and author Ann Coulter said on Wednesday she has scrapped plans to speak at the University of California’s Berkeley campus in defiance of school officials, who had canceled her officially sanctioned appearance out of concerns about violent protests from those who wanted to de-platform her.
Far-left activists and those students who did not want Coulter to he heard, had been vowing for weeks to shut down the event.
Coulter, one America’s best-known and most polarising conservative political pundits said the two conservative student groups, which had initially invited her, withdrew their sponsorship for the event following a dispute with university officials over their earlier cancellation of the event. Coulter had pledged to go to Berkeley anyway, she said, after complying with all of the university’s initial requirements up until the moment of cancellation.
“There will be no speech,” Coulter wrote in an email to Reuters on Wednesday. “I looked over my shoulder and my allies had joined the other team. “I have no sponsor, no lawyer, no court order,” she said. “I can’t vindicate constitutional rights on my own.”
Coulter said she might still visit Berkeley, famous for “being the home of free speech” in the sixties and seventies, on Thursday as originally scheduled, but would not deliver an address in which she was expected to present a conservative critique of pro-immigration policies.
Coulter had been scheduled to speak on Thursday at the invitation of the Young America’s Foundation and the Berkeley College Republicans. But Berkeley officials rejected those plans, saying they lacked a safe venue on campus to host the event on that date.
They cited violent demonstrations by left-wing demonstrators in February hours before another right-wing media figure, Milo Yiannopoulos, had been scheduled to speak but was prevented by violent protesters who smashed windows, and pepper sprayed students who wanted to attend the event.
Berkeley had proposed that Coulter’s speech be postponed to May 2. Coulter said she could not make it then and accused the school of trying to limit her audience by choosing a date that fell in a study week ahead of final exams. She then said she planned to go ahead with her speaking engagement on Thursday, with or without university approval.
On Tuesday, the Young America’s Foundation and the Berkeley College Republicans sued school officials, claiming the public university was suppressing free-speech rights.
Organisers subsequently withdrew support for the event altogether, accusing Berkeley of creating a “hostile atmosphere” and failing to assure police protection for those who attended, a charge the school denied.
Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said the university had received no update from Coulter or event sponsors. He declined to comment further.
Mogulof also shared a letter Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent to students on Wednesday saying campus police had learned that violence had been threatened if Coulter spoke.
“This university has two non-negotiable commitments, one to free speech, the other to the safety of our campus community members, their guests, and the public,” he wrote. “This is a university, not a battleground.”