Violent student protesters shut down Tomi Lahren event
'Outnumbered' panelists discuss the left-wing protests at University of New Mexico in response to Tomi Lahren's speaking engagement.
The University of New Mexico told Fox News Digital there is an investigation ongoing to see "who violated the law" after Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren was escorted to safety Thursday night when angry protestors shut down her speech on the Albuquerque campus.
"I would not have gotten out of there last night if it wasn’t for New Mexico State Police and Albuquerque P.D. I would not have gotten out of there, so I owe them a lot," Lahren told Fox News Digital from an Albuquerque hotel room.
Lahren, also an Outkick host, is used to being confronted by angry liberal protestors who attempt to silence her conservative views, calling it "pretty routine stuff" she encounters frequently when speaking to college students. It was no different on Thursday when she was set to speak New Mexico’s Turning Point USA chapter inside a large event space at the student union. She saw a few signs claiming she was a "White supremacist," but thought the presence of campus police would deter any serious resistance.
Tomi Lahren was escorted to safety on Thursday night when angry protestors attempted to shut down her speech at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. (Tomi Lahren )
"We were told that they were going to be out in the courtyard, not allowed into the student union, these counterprotesters or whatever they were. We were told that they're going to be kept outside," she said.
"I start my speech and you can hear the chants and you can hear the screaming and the expletives. And again, nobody really thought anything of it. They're just, you know, fired up. And I didn't really think too much of it until they started pushing past the officers and banging on the doors so much that these double doors are visibly moving and shaking and they are smashing into the windows. And that's when it became incredibly chaotic," Lahren continued. "Everybody was worried that they were going to get inside. They were pushing officers in front of the doors and pushing them out of the way. I mean, attacking them. It started to get very ugly and very violent, very fast. Of course, we could only see through these little windows in the front the room we were in, so we couldn't really see exactly what was going on out there."
Through the tiny window, Lahren said she could see people franticly banging on the doors.
"At that point, they made the decision that we could probably end the speech and I needed to get somewhere in case they did break through the doors, because it started to become apparent that that might be a very realistic possibility," Lahren said. "So, they escorted me with a couple of Campus PD officers into the back kitchen of the student union, and we were just barricaded back there, for lack of a better term, because they didn't know how to get me out."
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Tomi Lahren doesn’t plan on letting the protestors "win" anytime soon and said University of New Mexico protestors motivated her to speak at more college campuses. (FOX NEWS)
Lahren said the police didn’t know how to get the students who were on hand to listen to her to safety, either.
"After it became apparent that it was going to be, you know, very bad for me, I couldn't leave. They called in New Mexico State Police. They called an Albuquerque police, and they called in their emergency response team, and they had to get me out of there through a loading dock," she said.
Police then drove Lahren and her father around the city to make sure nobody was following them before dropping them back off at their hotel. When Lahren was finally settled, she saw people bragging about the ordeal on social media.
"I see these far left accounts and these Antifa accounts bragging about what they had done, that they had shut down the event, releasing videos," she said. "Everybody had their cell phones out."
Fox News Digital found several messages on social media, including an account that offered "safety tips" for protestors and said the school "should be ashamed of themselves" for giving Lahren a platform.
Tomi Lahren initially thought the presence of campus police would deter any serious resistance. (Michael Tullberg)
Lahren believes the university should be more concerned with protecting their students regardless of individual political views.
"The fact that there were students in that room, they were barricaded in that room. They didn't have the luxury, like I did, of leaving in an armored emergency response vehicle," Lahren said. "What happened to them? Now, I'm talking to the organizer, making sure she got home safe, but those kids that had to leave -- let's remember, they also had to go to school today with the same classmates wanting to rip them limb from them last night. That is how bad college campuses have gotten."
She said the students caused mayhem and even pulled fire alarms, but she doesn’t believe any arrests were made. The University of New Mexico Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The University of New Mexico insists students will be held accountable for their actions.
"The University of New Mexico is committed to the principles of free speech and values its role as a public square for debate, a marketplace of ideas, and a place to test and challenge competing viewpoints and opinions. In this context, allowing speakers invited by a student organization on campus in no way implies an endorsement of the content of their speeches or their opinions. And those who disagree with the ideas expressed are encouraged to respectfully voice their perspectives," University of New Mexico spokesperson Cinnamon Blair told Fox News Digital.
"The safety of our campus community and visitors is our first priority. We are deeply disappointed in the actions of those individuals who intentionally chose to disrupt a scheduled speaker and infringed upon the rights of the speaker and those who attended the event to listen and engage, vandalized University property and unlawfully pulled a fire alarm," Blair continued. "UNM is investigating these incidents and will hold anyone who violated the law or University policies accountable. Additionally, several UNM departments will be meeting to discuss improving the environment in which a speaker’s right to conduct their scheduled programming is ensured along with the public’s right to free speech, especially when our facilities are in use for multiple events at the same time."
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Blair also said the students were able to get safely out of the venue.
Despite the chaotic night, Lahren doesn’t plan on letting the protestors "win" anytime soon.
"There is not a campus I won't go to. I'm going to keep doing this and speaking on campus, because you will not shut down free speech. You will not intimidate speakers and conservative students," Lahren said. "This happening has actually inspired me to do more campuses, because we cannot allow them to intimidate us and back us into a corner, into the silence. That means they win. And I will never let that happen."
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