OutKick host Tomi Lahren spoke out against attempts by the left to shut down free speech after Riley Gaines was attacked at San Francisco State University Thursday for her position against trans athletes competing in women’s sports.
Gaines said she was ambushed and physically hit twice by a man after her speech on sex discrimination in women’s sports at a Turning Point USA and Leadership Institute event.
Gaines has been an outspoken advocate of keeping trans athletes out of women’s sports after she was required to compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. The two eventually tied for a national title.
Lahren, who was ambushed by angry protesters at the University of New Mexico in September, said this is the left’s new method of shutting down free speech.
"Free speech is not attacking somebody, hitting somebody, shouting somebody down so that they're unsafe and unable to deliver their message. That's not free speech," Lahren said on "Outnumbered" Friday.
"What Riley went there to do and what other conservative speakers like myself go to do is actual free speech and it's respectful of that First Amendment right."
THESE UNIVERSITIES ARE AT WAR WITH CONSERVATIVE SPEAKERS
Lahren was called a White supremacist before the event and could see protesters frantically banging on the doors while she was speaking. Her speech was cut short, and she was escorted into a campus kitchen where she was barricaded until police arrived. Police and an emergency response team organized her exit through a loading dock.
She now believes the left has taken cancel culture to new heights and is turning to violence in order to advance its agenda.
"It used to just be trying to cancel somebody by calling them a name and getting them kicked out of a university or getting them canceled on a show. Now they've realized that doesn't really have the same impact anymore," she explained. "They have to make people fear for their life."
And while Lahren and Gaines were both barricaded after their respective ambushes, Lahren questioned what happened to the students and attendees who came to hear them speak.
Lahren stressed the need for accountability for these violent student protesters, warning these incidents won’t stop on their own.
"Until universities step up and have some real consequences for these people, it's going to get worse," she said.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
