DePaul President Condemns Protesters Who Shouted Down Controversial Speaker

The president of DePaul University has condemned protesters who shut down a speech by a conservative pundit on Tuesday, and has apologized to the College Republicans chapter that sponsored the event. In a message to the Illinois campus on Wednesday morning, the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider said he had been “sorry to see” video of the protest and news reports about it.

Video of the event shows two protesters taking the stage where Milo Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart contributor and well-known conservative commentator, was being interviewed, and refusing to leave:

“Yesterday’s speaker was invited to speak at DePaul, and those who interrupted the speech were wrong to do so,” Father Holtschneider wrote on Wednesday. “Universities welcome speakers, give their ideas a respectful hearing, and then respond with additional speech countering the ideas.”

He added that he was “ashamed” to see the protesters take the microphone from the moderator’s hands and “wave it in the face of our speaker.”