Thread: Trump threatens funding cut if UC Berkeley 'does not allow free speech'

Trump threatens funding cut if UC Berkeley 'does not allow free speech'

By Rebecca Savransky - 02/02/17 07:13 AM EST



President Trump early Thursday threatened to cut federal funding to the University of California, Berkeley after violent protests broke out on its campus Wednesday in response to a planned appearance by a far-right commentator.

"If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view — NO FEDERAL FUNDS?" the president tweeted Thursday morning.

onald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and
practices violence on innocent people with a
different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?

3:13 AM - 2 Feb 2017

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Thursday released a statement calling the president's apparent threat an "abuse of power."

“President Donald Trump cannot bully our university into silence. Simply put, President Trump’s empty threat to cut funding from UC Berkeley is an abuse of power," she said in the statement.

"As a senior member of the education funding subcommittee, I will continue to stand up to President Trump’s overreach and defend the rights of our students and faculty.”

A scheduled appearance by right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled Wednesday night, about two hours before the Breitbart editor was scheduled to speak.

The university said in a statement the violence was "instigated by a group of about 150 masked agitators who came onto campus and interrupted an otherwise non-violent protest," according to NPR."This was a group of agitators who were masked up, throwing rocks, commercial grade fireworks and Molotov cocktails at officers," U.C. Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennet told The Associated Press.

More than 1,500 people had showed up to protest Yiannopoulos's appearance on campus.

At least six people were injured, according to CNN.

Yiannopoulos called what happened "an expression of political violence," according to CNN.

"I'm just stunned that hundreds of people ... were so threatened by the idea that a conservative speaker might be persuasive, interesting, funny and might take some people with him, they have to shut it down at all costs," he said in a Facebook Live video.


Updated 11:37 p.m

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/317494-trump-threatens-no-federal-funds-if-uc-berkeley-does-not-allow-free

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What happened last night at UC Berkeley should not be happening anywhere in our country. But, we're a mess. A confused foreign-saturated impoverished mess with Americans trying to fix it and those who caused it trying to stop it.

It's the grand battle of opinions. Squelching free speech whether you agree with it or not with violence, fires and pepper spray are criminal acts. Enforce the law.

by BEN KEW
2 Feb 2017
Berkeley, CA

UC Berkeley last year received $370 million in funding from the federal government, underlining the seriousness of President Trump’s threat to withdraw funding following leftist riots at the college yesterday.

The riots, which were a successful effort to prevent Breitbart Senior Editor MILO from speaking at the university, were condemned by President Donald Trump, who earlier threatened to take away the university’s federal funding.

“If U.C Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?,” Trump wrote.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?
3:13 AM - 2 Feb 2017
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Coverage of the rioting spread across the world last night as students smashed ATMs and bank windows, looted a Starbucks, beat Trump supporters, pepper sprayed innocent individuals, and set fires in the street. Others spray painted the words “Kill Trump” on storefronts.

Paul SaccaVerified account
‏@Paul_Sacca

Where UC Berkeley receives research funding...

4:49 AM - 2 Feb 2017

On the UC Berkeley website, the university boasts that “each year, the UC Berkeley campus receives well over half a billion dollars in research and other support from external sources.”

“The federal government provided 55 percent of these funds, and California state agencies and other government sources, industry, and the nonprofit sector supplied the rest,” it continues.

The riots took place on what was scheduled to be the final event of MILO’s Dangerous Faggot Tours. Since the tour restarted in January, violent protests have broken out at UC Davis as well as the University of Washington, where one person was shot.

http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2017/0...deral-funding/