NEIU hosts Sean Spicer with protests and culture clashes

It’s been some time since we witnessed a college protest, and that was when we were  a protester during the Vietnam War so imagine our middle-aged chagrin as we approached the Northeastern Illinois University campus, on Thursday night, to cover the Daniel L Goodwin Distinguished Lecture Series with longtime political strategist Donna Brazile, and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, in what was bound to be a lively discussion, but had forgotten the deafening sounds of bull-horns, and rhyming protest chants.

The request for an escort, to the box office, across the floor, blocked by protesters, was given to a buff looking male with a walkie-talkie, to get our press pass, proved fruitless as we were told with a raised eyebrow, “You’ll just have to force your way through.”

Realizing that this was going to be challenging, but in the name of a free press, we tried, with a litany of “so sorry”, “excuse me” past a megaphone toting woman, leading the group in a loud chant of, “Hey, hey, here, here, Sean Spicer is not welcome here!”, while scampering past the auditorium doors, where the Plexiglas barrier of the box office made conversation impossible..

Finally, after some yelling of our own, we were escorted through the kind efforts of two fierce looking athletic males (with their own walkie-talkies), to the press section, and immediately heard Spicer angrily confronting Phil Ponce, host of WTTW's Chicago Tonight, who was the moderator of this sixth installment of the Goodwin series.

That was not the beginning, or even end of the protest drama, and we missed, but later learned that a male protester disrupted Ponce’s introduction rushed the stage, yelling “Shut it down!”, but was quickly tackled and dragged away by security guards, as he shouted, “I am a student here and all of you here are “f----g Nazis, you guys are hurting me!”

Ponce later quipped, “No one said that Democracy was easy!” and also added, “I hear that shouting outside, and that’s a sign of health, and we have an opportunity to have a robust and civil discussion.”

Spicer his voice near screaming, railed against Ponce, who tried for cover, over screeching accusations by the former press secretary, of “you” and “you people”, as he screeched his defense of President Trump, and the biased media:  “You all said, when he first came in, “How do we get this guy?” responding to Ponce’s question about the accuracy of some of his early statements.

As Ponce, stammering, struggled to regain his composure, and counter that some of Spicer’s earliest comments were indeed untruths, “for example the size of the crowds at the Inauguration, where you said, “It was "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe."

Spicer then retreated from the quote, and instead gave an explanation, that in his inimitable style, was that the real problem was of regret saying, as he had publicly noted before, but that it was still the “greatest experience to witness seeing such a large crowd.”

In an interview with NPR in July of 2018, Spicer said, “If you ask me for one thing that I probably want a do-over on, that's it. There was nobody happy with me that night.”

That might have been an understatement that night as, someone, three rows ahead of us, shouted “liar”, where he was promptly shushed by an elderly woman, only to have someone else, on the other side of the auditorium make the same accusation.

Then a second man appeared, and scrambled onto the stage, saying, “Spicer invited me! And sat cross-legged on the side, until Brazile nudged Ponce, who said, ‘Sir, you have to leave,” and was then hustled off stage, by security.

Earlier, CampusReform.org reported that “Moments after Spicer walked out on stage, someone is heard shouting "Spicer, you f*cking scumbag, kill yourself" and "you piece of shit!"

There was some questions of accuracy, but later that person identified himself, to me, saying he said “douche bag” to be exact.

Semantics aside, and oddly enough, after all of the shouts, screams, and the quirky defense of his statements about the inaugural crowd size, Spicer denounced Hillary Clinton, “that nobody liked,” giving some listeners the feeling that he was back in the White House press room before a slew of reporters.

Ponce then pointedly asked him about the charges that many people have made, questioning whether Trump is mentally incompetent, mentioning the diagnosis of narcissism, according to the criteria of the DSM, the Diagnostic Statistics Manual, used by psychologists, counselors, and social workers; and, to which Spicer replied, “that is a silly question, how could you even ask that based on some medical journal?”

The anger that the protesters fed from, that has given pause to some in the media who have said that the upcoming 2020 election is less about issues, and more about the person-hood of Trump and his dramatic altering of what a 21st century American democracy looks like.

Appearances, aside the evening billed as “Politics, the Press, and the Presidential Election,” the question of campus speeches from conservatives was also a topic, with Spicer noting that in his college years, “I don’t ever remember a conservative speaker.”

Some have wondered, aloud, what does being a conservative mean, now?

Debated for several decades, the greater contrast between political labels, remains to be firmly seen, but taking a rear-view glance, in attempting a definition, the ball has shifted from such old-school examples of Henry Cabot Lodge, or a Douglas Dillon, to those who have altered the course, and entered the presidency, such  by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; all of whom, in their administrations, skewed prevailing conservative ideas about fiscal, and legislative solutions to social issues, that earlier conservatives espoused, albeit with limitations.

The protests themselves, that night, reflected the shift, and in the materials that we received, there were these excerpts, in reaction to violence that has been triggered by the president’s remarks, in incidents both here, and abroad.

“"We see the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration—including the role Spicer took early in this administration—as drivers of this violence," protest organizers wrote on the Facebook event page for the Rally to Stop Sean Spicer at NEIU. . . .The role Spicer played—and that the Trump administration continues to play—in this violence is one of creating space for these acts to occur."

“Spicer has consistently promoted policies like the Muslim ban, a border wall, family separation, mass deportations, banning trans people from serving in the military, and many other policies that have encouraged the violence that is taking over our world,” quoted Reason.com.

Ponce in advance, on WTTW, emphasized “The appearance at NEIU by Sean Spicer and Donna Brazile underscores key roles of a university – to expose students to different points of view, to acknowledge the right to protest, and to generate discussions about pressing matters in society,” Ponce told WTTW News. “All of us can benefit from robust and civil conversations on the current state of politics, the press and the future of the presidency.”

Perhaps so, but with a diverse student body of Muslims, Jews, and other ethnic minorities, and a location in a known neighborhood of immigrants, working class students, and with institutional credentials that NEIU has received “a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, [that] is consistently recognized as a national leader among its peers,” the invitation seems to be contradictory to established university values, some said, or others, more candidly, told us, later, that the Spicer invitation is “a slap in our faces.”

With the focus on Spicer, and only much later Brazile, he was asked about the veracity of many of his statements, he noted that defending unpopular statements, was his job, and “not to call the balls”, and added the role of the White House press secretary “is a hard job.”

He also disavowed that he had once kept The New York Times, CNN and Politico out of the press room, saying instead that he had held a private meeting, and that it was not open to the press, saying, “I have a right to hold a private meeting!”

Brazile, on the other hand, when she could get a word in,  tried to jolly up the crowd with some folksy, “down home” humor, and jokes about “cussing folks out,” but, at times, seemed to wander about to find her position, and, whether it was earth mother, political expert, with a past, or simply to make everyone feel good.

She was not without a measure of success, as she parried, and laughed, and cracked jokes, but attempted to bridge the chasm, by saying, as “press secretary if they tell you that the sky is blue, and it’s not, it’s blue.”

Brazile also took a few swipes, with scattered references to being badly portrayed by the media, and for journalists, “that don’t do their homework,'' as Ponce asked his first question, playfully saying, “I know that you have the answer, as I submitted the question to your first, referring to her departure from the DNC for leaking a question to Hillary Clinton in a presidential debate, because, as she later explained, she didn't want her to be “blindsided” by the question.

Much like her later revelation to FOX TV personality Tucker Carlson, where she now also works, she claims that she also gave questions, at that time in 2016, to Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.

There were a few titters from the audience, with Ponce's teasing, but Brazile did not seem to be amused by his humor.

She also took a swipe, in equal measure, at the polls and how they inform party politics, and how “misleading” but also that they need facts, not “bullshit”, and journalists that don’t do their homework, prompting some applause.

In what might have been seen as a way to spread the pain of the loss to Trump, by Clinton, Brazile noted the strategic loss of “bumper stickers and buttons” to key battleground states like Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, by the DNC, and that without “voter expansion” by the Democrats, Trump could be reelected.

This very urban audience seemed to be underwhelmed by Brazile’s notice that the DNC needed to pay attention to rural areas, something that the Trump campaign has focused on heavily.

Taking the offense she also focused on her controversial remarks, last month on Fox Radio’s “Guy Benson” show about Trump’s rhetoric and its link to mass murderers, and the many negative comments engendered from the president’s many critics.

 "The reason why is to point fingers and to play this so-called blame game. President Trump had nothing to do with the maniac, and I’m being gracious here, the maniac who shot up a Wal-Mart store. He had nothing to do with the person who shot up, you know, the bar in Dayton. This is unbecoming of the country. The President of United States, you know, should not be blamed for you know these individual killers."

She then supported other remarks made at the same time, echoing Candidate Obama, that “we are all Americans” and that she is sick of all of these references to race, that bought huge applause, intended to support her assertion or not.

Many in the audience were expecting a prediction, of sorts, on who could beat Trump and she noted that with Kamala Harris and Corey Booker “stalling” it seemed that Joe Biden was the one leading candidate expected to win the nomination.

NEIU’s Goodwin lecture series may never have this many fireworks again, but in an age where opinions, and those who make them, are not receding, democracy is indeed at work.