Tulane alum decries Hunter Biden invite, reveals history of on-campus bias, attacks against conservatives
Republican alum says 'environment was unsafe' for conservatives
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Conservatives were outraged Wednesday night after Tulane University announced that Hunter Biden would participate as a guest speaker in a 10-week course on "Media Polarization" this summer.
But the move came as little surprise to one alum, who detailed a long history of on-campus political bias and troubling attacks in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview.
TULANE UNIVERSITY INVITES HUNTER BIDEN TO BE GUEST SPEAKER
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Ben Storch, who served as treasurer of a Republican group on campus during 2014-2018, said the group was forced to disassemble in 2019 after a leader's dormitory door was set ablaze in what he believes to be a politically motivated attack. Police charged two Tulane students with aggravated arson at the time, but the school said officials found no evidence to support Storch's theory in a statement to Fox News on Thursday.
"The environment was unsafe to continue openly being a conservative on campus," Storch recalled.
"We would wear MAGA hats and in the dining room, they refused to serve us. People would yell at us...and that escalated."
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While students aggressively opposed his political views, Storch received little support from the school's liberal faculty.
"There was definitely deferential treatment even from the school," Storch said, reflecting on the canceled classes following Donald Trump's 2016 presidential victory that were set aside as a "mourning period."
With President Biden's son set to teach a course this summer, Storch said he is "disappointed" to see that little has changed in the New Orleans university.
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"I hoped that they would be a little more balanced," Storch said, "but I don't expect them to be because I know how they've always operated. I know how the administration works. It's the same university president as when I was there, and to see them now sponsoring the president's son...it's disappointing."
Hunter Biden will reportedly join nine other guest speakers for the course titled "Media Polarization and Public Policy Impacts," which will focus on "the current state of the media landscape in the United States and how media polarization, fake news and the economics of the new business impact public policymaking in Washington D.C."
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Storch said the topic represents the "ultimate irony."
"It's kind of the ultimate irony that Hunter Biden is talking about fake news after all his efforts to decry his laptop as fake," he quipped.
Former White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Deborah Birx, New Yorker columnist Susan Glasser, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, CBS' "Face The Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan, CNN correspondent Kylie Atwood and Fox News political analyst and "The Five" co-host Juan Williams are also listed as guest speakers for the course.