BUZZ
Conservative commentator alleges school would not let his team conduct ‘routine’ security checks
Steven Crowder withdrew from a scheduled debate Friday at the University of Pennsylvania, alleging roadblocks put up by school officials.
The conservative commentator says the school would not let his team livestream the event, as previously agreed to, nor allow his own security the proper access for their normal safety checks.
“We’ve just heard from Penn Live Arts and have been informed that we would not be able to livestream due to ‘safety’ concerns,” Crowder’s staffers wrote in an email to his debate opponent, Professor Jonathan Zimmerman.
“However, the on site security team has also informed our personal security that we would not be able to undertake many of our routine safety measures which makes us seriously doubt their reasoning,” the team wrote in an email obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Zimmerman (pictured, right) criticized the administration in comments to the student newspaper.
“I don’t think that the people who run this University are evil people. I understand their concerns that, with a livestream, there would be some sort of flash mob,” he said. “But I think this is a bad decision.”
He said that livestreaming the event could keep it safer, by allowing people to watch it without coming in person.
“If it’s being livestreamed, there’s less incentive to go down to Annenberg [the auditorium],” he said. “I think it’s just as plausible that saying you can’t livestream would actually create precisely the sort of flash mob or chaos that they’re worried about.”
The history professor, who has been critical of the state of free speech on college campuses, said this incident does not reflect well on the university.
“I want it, and I’m trying to live it, but do we want it?” Zimmerman said. “I think one way to read this entire episode is that actually we don’t.”
Prior to the Tuesday cancelation, Crowder had pledged to go ahead with the event and bring his own team to livestream, as The College Fix reported yesterday.
I’m telling you right now…we plan to go to UPenn Friday, April 10 and live stream,” he said. “That is what we will do.”
The comedian said he previously had permission to livestream. He said he has spent tens of thousands of dollars on the venue and security along with a $10,000 donation to the university. He has been trying to debate a professor for ten years now, offering the five-figure donation to any university that would host him.
Crowder shared emails from the university which clearly state his company will provide the livestreaming equipment, implying permission.
The University of Pennsylvania (@Penn) Does Not Support Free Speech.
Change My Mind was always meant to challenge institutions that fail the people they’re supposed to teach.
The debate topic between myself and Prof. Zimmerman set for this week’s CMM is free speech, where it… pic.twitter.com/lO15e7VvnO
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) April 6, 2026
“It was very clearly confirmation that we were going to be livestreaming, we’ve always maintained that,” Crowder said on his show.
Staffers at the school have complained about having to work on the event, as previously reported by The College Fix.
“[T]he debate could perpetuate ‘hate, bigotry, and ignorance into the world and into University of Pennsylvania students,’” one event staffer told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Most of our concerns come from not only the content that people working will have to hear and endure, but also the audience that it will bring and what could happen before the event or what could happen after the event.”
Another staffer said: “It feels like free speech is a trojan horse issue to platform/amplify the voice someone who profits from generating hate speech towards minorities.”
Zimmerman said the cancelation is likely to reinforce conservative criticism of higher education and political correctness.
“I think it will allow Crowder to take a kind of victory lap in which he says, ‘You see? These elitist, insulated libs are afraid to talk to me,’” Zimmerman told the student newspaper. “I’ll be happy to have a conversation with him.”
