The campaign by staff and students at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University to dump visiting scholar and former Trump administration Cabinet member Richard Grenell turned ugly last month when an “assassination” threat was lobbed at him on social media.
Sources following the case said that President Trump’s former acting intelligence czar and former ambassador to Germany was targeted by two female students in now deleted tweets. One suggested killing Grenell, and another offered to help, said the sources.
Campus and county police investigated the threat and determined that neither of the students had dangerous weapons.
A CMU spokesman refused to comment on the details of the investigation but did tell us, “CMU investigates alleged incidents like this and contacts interested parties as part of such investigations.”
.@RichardGrenell gives his political opinions, students get upset.https://t.co/J9DJg7wUdo
— Matt Lamb (@MattLamb22) December 10, 2020
It is unclear if the women were punished for the threats. One lives near Grenell in the Los Angeles area. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Grenell, who has hosted foreign policy seminars via Zoom for students, told us, “I’m thankful for the quick and detailed work of all the law enforcement officials involved.”
Ever since he was selected for a fellowship at CMU’s Institute for Politics and Strategy, Grenell has faced a campus “cancel culture” attack because of his vocal support for Trump.
In addition to his work for the president, Grenell has also been threatened because he is a conservative gay man, a fact that irks liberal gay and transgender students.
Twitter censors gay conservative group by deleting everyone it follows.
Why does this only happen to conservatives? https://t.co/HrsclMxtPV
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) November 24, 2020
By appointing Grenell as acting director of national intelligence earlier this year, Trump was the first president to put a gay person in the Cabinet. In a tweet when he left government service in June, Grenell said Trump told him, “You are the first openly gay Cabinet secretary, and it’s a big deal.”
Back in August, the student and faculty outcry about Grenell reached a fever pitch because he continued to talk Trump up online. The university’s president called for an investigation. He cleared Grenell of violating any school policies but, in vowing to protect free speech, seemed to signal that anti-Grenell hate would also be allowed.
Online, Grenell has blasted the liberal and media-fed “cancel culture” that is trying to silence conservatives and even get them fired.
Reporters in DC are advocates for the left.
We need to stop expecting them to be unbiased.
The Washington media abandoned journalism years ago.
Act accordingly. https://t.co/wTBtNL19bW
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 9, 2020
As the election neared and he appeared for Trump, the attacks heightened. And now that he is a leading advocate for the president’s legal effort to review state elections, he’s faced even nastier criticism.
Grenell told us that while he supports free speech, hate speech of the kind he has faced at CMU can’t be accepted as equal to discussions on policy and politics.
“I strongly believe that we need academic institutions that firmly support diversity, tolerance, and lively discussions. But inherent in that is a respect for those who think differently, and university leadership should make very clear that physical threats against those you disagree with is childish behavior that will not be tolerated,” said Grenell.
