White House correspondent arrested at UConn speech after physical confrontation with protester

The event, titled “It’s OK to be White,” drew the ire of several left-wing students who tried to shut down the event.

Cellphone videos show protesters walking around the stage while Wintrich stands behind the podium.

A woman walked up, swiped his notes off of the lectern, and walked briskly up the aisle clutching her prize, the videos show.

Wintrich is then seen chasing after the woman and yanking her by the backpack. She stumbled backward to the floor while other students stood up and escalated the incident into a fracas.

Wintrich was arrested shortly after being questioned about the incident.

Authorities released Wintrich around 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Wintrich tweeted Wdnesday he was arrested for “Second Degree Breach of Peace.”

“Adding irony to the entire ordeal, I was arrested for ‘Second Degree Breach of Peace.’ Apparently, ‘Peace’ is anything far left students don’t agree with. SAD! Plenty of great young conservatives in the audience – disappointed that the left wouldn’t let this happen as planned,” Wintrich tweeted.

He called the incident “unfortunate” and promised to seek charges against both the woman and the University of Connecticut.

“It’s really unfortunate that some of the kids at @UConn felt the need to be violent and disruptive during a speech that focused on how the leftist media is turning Americans against each other. Tonight proved my point,” Wintrich tweeted.

“Update: I will peruse (sic) legal justice against the woman who stole my property and the University that failed to secure my freedom of speech and safety,” he added.

Wintrich did not immediately return a request for comment from Red Alert Politics.

At only 29 years old, Wintrich is one of the youngest White House correspondents and he’s also one of the most controversial. Gateway Pundit obtained a White House press pass this year for the first time. The site has published alt-right content, including several stories that were later proven to be made up.

There are no heroes in the story of Wintrich’s UConn speech (besides, perhaps, the police who intervened quickly enough to prevent pandemonium). The college protesters were wrong to try to shut down Wintrich’s speech. The woman who swiped the paper from the lectern was clearly wrong to steal. Wintrich, for his part, was wrong to react violently.

Several police officers were in the room, so Wintrich could have easily told one of them what happened. The police could have stopped her and demanded she give the papers back. If that didn’t work, Wintrich could have paused to print out another copy of his speech. Any of those options would have been better than chasing down a woman and pulling her down by the backpack.

Thanks to Wintrich’s knee-jerk reaction, the contents of his speech are now the least interesting part of this event. The story is no longer about what he has to say, but instead about what he did when someone tried to keep him from saying it. He’s committed an unforced error that works against team-free-speech: In the battle for hearts and minds, a liberal stole a piece of paper and a conservative threw her on the ground. Nobody looks good, but the right looks worse.

The Left loves to pretend that right-wing speech is violent. By resorting to violence at a speech event, Wintrich gave the Left more ammunition. Several colleges have disinvited conservative speakers without reason, and now Wintrich has legitimized their fears. An event designed for the free exchange of ideas turned into a free-for-all.

Yes, Wintrich, it’s okay to be white, but it’s not okay to assault someone who took a piece of paper off your lectern.

Update:

In a phone interview, Wintrich told the Washington Examiner that Gateway Pundit readers have identified the woman who stole his speech as a student adviser at a local community college with no connection to UConn. If this is true, her failure to understand free speech only highlights the problem of left-wing intolerance among college administrators. Wintrich lamented this hostile environment and expressed total confidence in his reaction to the speech stealer. His one regret about the incident is that he was unable to deliver his speech.

“I was retrieving my stolen property, and I exercised reasonable and lawful action to do so,” Wintrich told the Washington Examiner. Angela Morabito (@AngelaLMorabito) writes about politics, media, ethics, and culture. She holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Georgetown University and has appeared on “On the Record with Greta van Susteren” as well as “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.”