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Sanjana Varghese
Sep 11, 2020
Twitter / Kaitlin Bennett
Kaitlin Bennett came to the University of Central Florida to defend President Trump to college students – and incited a protest while she was there.
24-year-old Bennett is also known as 'Kent State Gun Girl' after a stunt in 2018 in which she attended her university graduation carrying an AR-10 rifle.
She has been a popular figure among the Trump administration and his supporters because of the fact that she’s young and conservative.
Bennett was previously linked to Alex Jones of InfoWars, and despite a lot of other controversy – including leaked anti-Semitic group texts – she's still incredibly popular.
Bennett seemed to have been invited to the university by a group on campus, but was quickly criticised for not wearing a mask and saying that she didn’t have to – despite the fact that the University of Central Florida actually has a policy on mask wearing.
Bennett then accused the university of lying, saying that she had gone to the campus to ask students if they thought Trump would be a good president. Bennett has her own website and is incredibly active on social media, where she often posts 'vox pops' – short clips speaking to people about an issue.
She also alleged that her head of security – who she had not previously mentioned – had spoken to UCF police Commander Freeman about the situation, and that they had given her and her team reassurances that they would not be forced to wear masks.
What liars! I went to @UCF to ask students who would be a better president for black Americans, Trump or Biden, and… https://t.co/6jKU3CfgWS— Kaitlin Bennett (@Kaitlin Bennett) 1599767465
Even so, it seems like Bennett did actually comply, with a pro-Trump face mask, as she walked around the school for the rest of the day.
She also seemed to tweet about the university after, saying that she had a message for Donald Trump – which was to defund public universities, saying that they are centers for left-wing indoctrination.
My message to @realDonaldTrump is simple. It's time to DEFUND public universities. Not another penny in taxes shoul… https://t.co/v31CelHyNG— Kaitlin Bennett (@Kaitlin Bennett) 1599799756
Footage later emerged of crowds of people on what seemed to be the UCF campus following her around and asking her to leave, as well as what seemed like some kind of a brawl after her security got involved.
#UCFProtests | Here’s some footage sent to us by Raph Merritt (@raphmerritt) — individuals walked around UCF’s loop and as everyone was approaching the Engineering Building, it appears Kaitlin Bennett’s personal security pushed an individual. pic.twitter.com/eAIaVKPrdq
#UCFProtests | Here’s some footage sent to us by Raph Merritt (@raphmerritt) — individuals walked around UCF’s loop… https://t.co/TOkf9ixAkF— UCF Knight News (@UCF Knight News) 1599770962
It’s still unclear who invited Bennett to campus, and why she picked the University of Central Florida. While she said in several tweets that she had gone to the university to talk about President Trump, her actual visit seemed to consist mostly of her being chased around by various students on the campus.
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