A duo of conservative influencers sat outside McKeldin Library on Wednesday morning with a sign that read “The Left is Violent! Let’s Talk.”
David Khait and Cam Higby run Fearless Debates, an Instagram account with more than 300,000 followers that documents debate booths set up on college campuses. The pair recorded their interactions from 9 a.m. to noon as part of a national college tour. Khait said they want to engage in civic conversations.
Their tabling, set up alongside University of Maryland’s Turning Point USA chapter, took place just weeks after the death of conservative commentator and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. He was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
The debate format Khait and Higby used echoed the style Kirk was known for.
“Our intention always is to have a culture of civil debate, especially in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination,” Khait said.
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Khait and Higby first set up a table on campus earlier this week without university approval. They were informed by police that they needed a reservation and were directed to the appropriate channels, according to a statement from this university.
University of Maryland Police officers were present Wednesday as part of standard event safety protocol, the university statement read.
The event in front of McKeldin Library remained peaceful, which Higby said is typical of most of their stops on college campuses.
Cole Robinson, a senior philosophy, politics and economics major, said he watched a classmate debate the group and stepped in when he noticed logical fallacies in the discussion.
The debate began with disagreements over violence on the right versus left sides of the political spectrum and eventually shifted to a conversation about Palestine, Robinson said. He said it’s frustrating that the event was allowed on campus.
“They’re advocating for hate speech, and they’re ostracizing people within our community,” Robinson said. “I don’t believe that is a form of speech that should be allowed on our campus.”
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Ben Zullo, a sophomore biophysics major and member of this university’s Turning Point USA chapter, said he supported the debate and liked seeing different opinions on campus.
“I’m glad that conservative commentators feel empowered to come to places like this that generally do tend to lean pretty left,” Zullo said.
But Zullo said he thought the messaging on the sign saying “The Left is Violent” was unnecessarily inflammatory.
“I would like it to try to bridge the gap a little more than try to inflame people to come up and be aggressive and be angry,” Zullo said.
Khait said he wanted to teach people about the difference between liberals, Democrats and “the left.” Khait argued leftists are inherently violent because their desire for a communist or socialist revolution could not happen without violence.
Many social media comments on platforms like Reddit and YikYak encouraged students not to engage with the debate.
But Higby said encouraging conversations between people with different viewpoints can help lead to progress on political issues.
“The more you ostracize your political opposite, the further from a solution you get,” Higby said. “So if you want to solve these problems, the best thing you can do is set up a chair and sit right across from me and talk to me.”
