Secretary of Education Linda McMahon encouraged colleges to have security precautions on campuses and promoted free speech following the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University last week.
Kirk was killed during Turning Point USA’s first college campus tour stop, where he talked about and debated politics. When Kirk was shot, he was discussing transgender mass shooters at his “Prove Me Wrong” table.
At the fourth annual Education Law and Policy Conference, cohosted by the Federalist Society and the Defense of Freedom Institute, McMahon said, “We won’t be coward by the cowards who would do these kinds of things.”
“I do think universities have to be careful. I do think precautions have to be taken,” McMahon told Marisa Schultz, news editor for the Washington Examiner.
“We just have to be vigilant moving forward … don’t take unnecessary risks, but don’t cower. Let’s keep our message going forward and be strong.”
McMahon said President Donald Trump has asked for increased security for staff and Cabinet secretaries, and called on Congress to increase its security.
Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, announced last week that Turning Point USA’s campus tours will continue this fall despite her husband’s death. Colorado State University is the next stop on Sept. 30.
When asked if the political climate on college campuses contributed to Kirk’s death, McMahon said she didn’t know, but that there is an atmosphere that is making students feel unsafe.
“I do think that we have created an atmosphere, not just relative to Charlie, but on college campuses where students do not feel safe,” she said. “It’s one of the things that I recently challenged universities on is to make sure that they do have proper procedures in place for the protection of their students, so that they feel safe.”
The Trump administration has been launching investigations into universities and cutting federal funding to educational institutions that have not been preventing antisemitism on campuses or have been promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Columbia University recently settled to pay $221 million to restore more than $400 million in federal funding. Harvard University has also been a target — a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s $2.2 billion funding freeze earlier this month.
Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania have also settled with the Trump administration regarding related cases.
McMahon said challenging these universities did not “shut down free speech” but guaranteed a “broad diversity of views” on campuses.
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“If you shut down the speech on one side to allow the freedom of speech for another, you have actually compromised the entire principle, and that we cannot have,” McMahon said.
When Schultz asked if McMahon sees a connection between the transgender movement and school violence, she said it would be “premature” to say.