Breitbart editor speaks to student conservatives

Emily Smith | Daily Trojan

Breitbart News senior-editor-at-large Joel Pollak spoke on campus Thursday at an event held by Turning Point USA at USC, a national organization for young conservatives. Pollak spoke to a group of about 15 students about topics ranging from his own experiences with politics in college, to recent political controversies like NFL players kneeling during the national anthem at football games.

A relatively new group formed on campus in early 2016, Turning Point USA also welcomed Pollak on campus in March 2017, when he came to promote his novel, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution.

The group wanted to host Pollak to show that conservative voices do exist on college campuses where liberal viewpoints are often dominant, said Kathleen Looney, the chapter’s co-president.

“It’s very evident in our classes — I think we’ve all had professors who had very left-leaning biases,” Looney said. “We want the students in Turning Point to come and learn. Turning Point USA is really focused on the fact that the liberal voice has been heard on campus for a while, and we’re excited to remind students that there’s another side to the story and [that] those students are here too.”

Pollak expressed similar sentiments in his reasons for coming to campus — to show conservative students that they aren’t alone.

“They often feel quite isolated on campus, so it’s important for them to know that conservatives are there for them, that we really care about them and we want them to feel supported,” Pollak said. “Also, it’s just really fun. I love talking to young people. College campuses are a lot of fun — there’s a lot of energy here.”

During his speech, Pollak spoke about a variety of major political issues, and his own background as a college student.

He said that as a student at Harvard Law School, it wasn’t easy being an outspoken conservative on a college campus.

“I got nasty messages and anonymous hate mail,” Pollak said. “People hated me. It was nasty, and it’s probably nastier now, if you support [President] Trump on campus.”

He also spoke at length about the 2016 election, and what ultimately caused Trump to win. Pollak boiled it down to three main points: Trump won because he talked about issues no one else wanted to discuss; he made excellent use of media coverage of him; and he worked harder than Hillary Clinton by holding more events in more states than she did.

Along with Pollak, Turning Point hopes to bring more conservative speakers to campus in the near future, including political commentator Ben Shapiro, who has recently been at the center of controversy over his planned speeches at UC Berkeley, where protests against conservative speakers gained national attention after turning violent.

“We haven’t had any backlash from the University having [Pollak] here, fortunately,” Looney said. “I have yet to see what is going to happen with Ben Shapiro, but we are expecting it to be a major feat to get Ben Shapiro here. It’s not only expensive to hire Ben Shapiro because he’s so popular, but the University also requires us to have security.”