WATCH LIVE: White Nationalist Richard Spencer Speaks At University Of Florida

Richard Spencer Image by Getty Images

By Sam Kestenbaum October 19, 2017

Richard Spencer, one of the country’s most prominent white nationalist, struggled to begin a much-hyped and controversial talk at the University of Florida amidst chants and boos from the crowd on Thursday afternoon.

“I am speaking to you reasonably and rationally,” he said amidst hand claps and chanting. “You are not speaking. You are screaming… attempting to bring a mob that is going to shut down free speech.”

“Are you adults? Are you ready to think for yourself? It doesn’t look like it. You all look like immature preschoolers,” he said.

“Go home Spencer, go home,” the crowd, mostly standing at the back of the auditorium, chanted. Some thrust up their fists or gave Spencer the middle finger. “We won’t back down,” other chanted.

“You are trying to shut down the speech of a dissident intellectual,” Spencer said.

Veronika Vernachio, a reporter with WUFT News is streaming a video live from inside the Phillips Center where Spencer is speaking now.

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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO