‘Alt-Right’ Leader Promises Berkeley Speech After Ann Coulter Pulls Out

Ann Coulter Image by Getty Images

By Sam Kestenbaum April 28, 2017

Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter pulled out of a controversial speech at the University of California, Berkeley, earlier this week after losing the backing of conservative groups that had sponsored her appearance — a move that disappointed those on the “alt-right” who saw it as a sign of weakness.

“It’s a sad day for free speech,” Coulter told The New York Times.

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer, who faced public opposition and a court battle before his appearance at Auburn University earlier this month, criticized the move.

“Is not a ‘sad day for free speech,’ Ann. It’s a sad day for ‘conservatives.’ Your movement is a collection of cowards,” he wrote on Twitter.

Spencer also vowed on Twitter that he “will absolutely go to #Berkeley within the next year,” adding, “never back down.”

Other “alt-right” online figures chimed in.

“Your surrender is all the more pathetic considering @RichardBSpencer won with fewer resources and less support at Auburn @AnnCoulter,” wrote blogger Mike Enoch, whose The Daily Shoah podcast popularized the triple parenthesis meme, known as “echoes,” used online to indicate Jews or perceived Jewish influence.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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