It was Candace Owens’ gig but she was about as irrelevant as she always is in the long run. It was her fan base that was real fun to play with on Monday!

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – As right wing hatemonger Candace Owens and her crew from Turning Point USA (TPUSA) packed up and left for the next stop in a spring college tour they have embarked on, her fanbase might have left more of an impact than she did with those who either attended or opposed her speaking event at Douglass College, a part of Rutgers University, as it included reputed Proud Boys, provocations and aggressive approaches from one of her more prominent supporters rhetoric from a Jewish student defending rapper Kanye West and a TPUSA blogger who defended a recent call to “eradicate” transgenderism and felt a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth should be abolished.

While Owens was inside the Douglass Campus Trayes Hall for her appearance many chose to be outside the building making their opposition known to her campaigns against diversity which was made apparent even today as she is excoriated for attacking a model in a wheelchair as “ridiculous” in an ad for SKIMS, an underwear line for people with disabilities, Owens saying further, “I really I don’t understand how far we’re going to take this inclusivity thing.” TPUSA was especially called out for its hate campaigns, particularly on the Rutgers campus where its chapter had to delete an antisemitic and racist meme last year after outrage.

The protests outside was mostly antifascists and event attendees verbally sparring with each other and curiously, the only one that engaged in any kind of violent action was R.C. Maxwell, who in recent weeks has garnered press as a hypeman for neo-fascist propagandist James O’Keefe is best known as being pepper sprayed accidentally by his own people during a 2017 anti-immigration rally in Laguna Beach, CA that saw clashes between participants and antifascists. When he saw the beginnings of the rally outside the hall, he walked up and tore up a placard and later attempted to charge antifa who immediately called out his hypocrisy of his declarations of protecting free speech.  

His was the only hypocrisy apparent in that regard. Morgonn Blaire McMichael an  Atherton, California native who relocated to Texas and became a TPUSA contributor while attending Texas Tech for the past five years, attempted to engage with antifascists for social media and tried to challenge them to show where freedoms are being deprived or taken away. At the same time she defended the position of right wing podcaster Michael Knowles that transgenderism must be eradicated and that the Trevor Project, an organization that works to prevent suicide particularly among LGBTQ youth, “shouldn’t be allowed”. Meanwhile, someone promoting “Jews for Ye”, who has a small Substack and Twitter account that assails Purim and Ukraine, attempted to defend not only rapper Kanye West’s recent anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi remarks with a free speech argument but also Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler as well on that basis. His t-shirt featured a hand drawn image of a groyper, the symbol of Nick Fuentes’ America First campaign.

As the protest itself took place at least seven individuals wearing masks and sunglasses appeared and took a position away from the counter-demonstration. While they wore no symbols and said nothing to anyone, one person holding what looked like a small dog was identified as one of two wearing Proud Boy colors in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York during the Chinese New Year harassing passers-by. It is not known as of yet what other groups if any were represented. Antifascists turned their attention to this group who left and returned several times and once the protest was over and the antifascists had left returned and spoke with law enforcement, keeping their masks and sunglasses on during the night.

Despite announcements that TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was supposed to participate in this event, he did not show.