“Big League News,” say UNC College Republicans: Sebastian Gorka is coming to town.
Gorka, who had served as a deputy assistant to President Trump, will speak at UNC-Chapel Hill on Monday. The event is being cosponsored by the UNC College Republicans, and the campus chapters of Christians United for Israel and Turning Point USA, a national network of students who bill themselves as “the community organizers of the right.”
According to organizers, Gorka will speak on U.S.-Israel relations and Middle East affairs under the Trump administration.
“Dr. Sebastian Gorka is an expert in counterterrorism and national defense, having served as an analyst and lecturer for British, Hungarian, and American governments and institutions. He most recently worked as deputy assistant to President Trump on the campaign trail and in the White House before leaving to further promote the ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda,” the College Republicans said in a media advisory.
The event will apparently only be open to students and faculty with current university IDs.
Gorka has been accused of espousing Islamophobic ideas and having ties to a far-right, Nazi-linked group in Hungary.
Gorka left his White House post in August, releasing a resignation letter saying “the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.” The White House denied that Gorka had resigned. His departure came soon after that of chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has since returned to heading up Breitbart News. Gorka had been a national security editor at Breitbart.
The visit comes at the UNC system’s Board of Governors considers a policy that would punish students, faculty, and staff for interrupting speakers and meetings, and as members of the UNC community call for the removal of a Confederate monument on campus known as Silent Sam.
The free speech policy was approved by a board committee last week and will be considered by the full board at its December meeting. The policy was prompted this summer when North Carolina joined a growing number of states passing laws regarding free speech on college campuses.
The campus chapter of Turning Point USA was set to host James Allsup, a right-wing YouTube commentator and leader of Students for Trump, on Thursday, but tweeted that the organization is no longer sponsoring an appearance by Allsup. It’s unclear whether the event is still taking place; an Eventbrite site to purchase tickets was no longer available this morning.
