At a university in the heart of a historically red state, Republican political pundit Ann Coulter expressed disdain for President Donald Trump while a majority of the crowd nodded in agreement.
Coulter, a featured speaker at the Turning Point USA event, continued while protests began in front of the Oklahoma Memorial Union against the event.
Though Coulter has repeatedly expressed distaste for the incumbent president both on Twitter and in podcasts, she said the campaign promises Trump originally ran on are still appealing and would likely be more successful without Trump himself heading their implementation.
“The Trump agenda without Trump would be a lot easier,” Coulter said. “Our new motto should be ‘Going on with Trumpism without Trump.’ That’s a winning strategy.”
Though she questioned Trump’s ability to implement many of his policies, Coulter said the Republican Party would be well-served to keep the current president as “the rally guy,” whether he secures another term or is defeated by former Vice President Joe Biden in the ongoing election.
Coulter said that Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had similar views with populist issues, adding that the political left and right should be able to unite to address issues like immigration and job creation.
“The populist issues are issues that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders' positions were really close on, at least for some of the things I care about,” Coulter said. “The Democrat Party is socialist. (Voters are) being scammed on the populist issues that (they) ought to come together on, left and right, to get together in politics. It's a class issue, and I don't want to burn down the rich, but I do think there could be a little more fairness for our fellow Americans.”
Coulter voiced that Trump has suffered historic attacks by the media, but these attacks have made his presidency look more impressive.
“The only people in the world who think saying something is the same as doing something are the media and Trump. The media acted like whatever Trump said just miraculously happened … so attacking him for the things he said, not the things he did, made him look great,” Coulter said. “Trump faced historic resistance from the media, and still about half of the people said, ‘I’m not voting for (Democrats), I’m not voting for the media.’”
Coulter also spoke on many issues concerning conservative beliefs, including the Supreme Court possibly overturning Roe v. Wade.
“I don't think Roe v. Wade will be overturned until we have at least a solid majority, as the one that put it into law,” Coulter said. “(Overturning Roe v. Wade) doesn't mean abortion is unconstitutional, doesn't make it illegal. All it does is say there's not a constitutional right and (it) should be decided the way everything else is inside the department … I promise you, California, really the whole West coast, you will be able to abort a child until they turn 30.”
Coulter also stated that another main issue in the U.S. currently is voter fraud within the election.
“Trump wins Michigan, ‘Oh, we still need to count Detroit.’ Trump wins Georgia, ‘Oh, we still need to count Atlanta’... this is how voter fraud happens,” Coulter said. “So every time Democrats scream bloody murder, but when Republicans want to investigate voter fraud, then (Democrats) say it doesn’t happen, but that’s because they wont investigate it … By that theory there were no lynchings of Black men in the South because we don’t have any convictions.”
Despite the indecisive state of the presidential election at the time of Coulter’s speech, she celebrated the Republican Party’s performance in the national Congressional elections, particularly the party earning new seats in the House of Representatives and fighting to defend their majority hold on the Senate.
Approximately 25 protesters outside of the event were expressing their anger for Coulter coming to speak at OU.
Biology junior Logan Pesina, the Students Advocates Against Government Injustice COVID-19 officer, said this event inviting Coulter “doesn’t align with beliefs including diversion and inclusion” at the university. Pesina expressed that Coulter’s presence does not make her feel safe, adding that TPUSA’s “paying for her to be here is terrifying.”
These protesters were also met with roughly 25 counter-protesters, including men wearing “Proud Boys” attire, who were there to advocate for Coulter. The two groups of protesters were heard tossing jeers toward each other, including “fascist” and “racist.”
While the protests continued, Coulter ended the event by taking questions from the eager audience, including those addressing the "Democratic hunt for racism."
“With Joe Biden, it’s going to be racism all the time. Racism is truly a bad thing but unless it’s acted upon, it’s not in the top 100 of worst things,” Coulter said. “Upon graduating, every college should tell their students, 'Go into the real world so you can find racism.' Finding racism doesn’t produce anything … any time or money being spent on finding racism won’t help anything.”
Coulter stated that many college graduates are “useless” because they have numerous student loans and majors that will not get them a job to make money. Coulter said colleges should back their own student loans based on a major’s projected average salary to combat federal student loan debt.
“People are wasting money doing this gender studies and ethnic studies, and they can never pay back their student loans, just to get a job in a Starbucks after graduation,” Coulter said. “I don't know the future of engineering with STEM fields once we stop letting in low-wage immigrants here to take those jobs, and there are such jobs out of college. Colleges need to just stop supporting all these massive, richer jobs that graduates (can) do.”
Coulter also voiced that Democrats’ failure to support a border wall translated to the party’s desire for “hundreds of millions of poor people” to enter the country.
Near the end of the event, Coulter summarized her feelings towards the Democratic party in a short statement.
“There are a lot of bad Republicans, there are no good Democrats,” Coulter said.
