MTSU’s chapter of Turning Point USA hosted Cabot Phillips, a popular conservative pundit and senior editor at The Daily Wire, to discuss “Everything the Media Won’t Tell You,” the first of five lectures the organization plans to host on campus throughout March and April.
Phillips spoke to around 15 students and community members gathered in the Student Union on Thursday about mainstream media, national pride and The Daily Wire CEO Ben Shapiro’s efforts to pardon police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in 2021, 19 months after he was recorded kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes.
People from as far as Nashville came to hear Phillips declare that mainstream media carefully controls what news gets out and is undertaking a gaslighting campaign against the American people.
“The left wants to convince all of you to hate your country,” Phillips said. “That sounds hyperbolic, but it’s not.”
One of his examples repeated Shapiro’s claim that the popular media hid parts of George Floyd’s autopsy from the public.
“The initial autopsy had said [Floyd] had died from an overdose from fentanyl, most likely,” Phillips said. “There were no signs that he had been killed because of restriction of blood flow.”
While Floyd’s autopsy — which has been publicly available in full since June 3, 2020 — revealed he had 11ng/ML of fentanyl in his system, his cause of death was listed as “cardiopulmonary arrest, complicating law enforcement subdual.”
In response, Jorge Avila, president of the MTSU College Democrats, called Shapiro’s effort to pardon Chauvin “disgusting.”
“TPUSA generally prides themselves off of the antithesis of what our nation was founded off of, the individual freedoms and liberties,” Avila said.
Philips alluded to those values when discussing “real” social justice warriors including Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr.
“Booker T. Washington, some of the best abolitionists were quoting the works of our founding fathers saying, ‘Hey, they had it right, [but] we’re not living up to it,’” Phillips said.
He said he believed they saw past the veneer of a system set up by slavery and were loyal to what the Founders promised in the Constitution.
“I find it pretty hypocritical because, as far as the left is concerned, a lot of what we are seeing is our movement is preserving our democracy, “ Avila said. “[Republicans] are the ones that are threatening our institutions that have been foundational to our country for hundreds of years.”
Students like Carley Ranta, a senior marketing major at MTSU and a member of TPUSA, enjoyed the talk.
“I appreciate how it wasn’t so far right, even though he is very conservative and he knows his values,” Ranta said. “I feel like there is still moderation and value to what he was saying, that the news shouldn’t lie to us.”
Philips has worked with The Daily Wire since leaving Campus Reform in 2020, where he was a media director and eventually editor-in-chief of the project’s “conservative watchdog” college newspaper.
Before working for Campus Reform, Phillips worked on Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign but began his entertainment career as a YouTuber.
Phillips’s first brush with virality landed him on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Phillips and his brother made a YouTube video in which they convinced their sister that the zombie apocalypse started while she was under anesthesia for wisdom tooth surgery.
“I wasn’t like a YouTuber or anything. I was just bored, and so we filmed it,” Phillips said. “I don’t think Ellen would have had me on if her show was still going now. I don’t think she’d be a big fan of my politics.”
However, Phillips became acquainted with mainstream media in 2016. He claimed he was able to talk about the Second Amendment on CNN following a school shooting in 2016, but was not asked back after he asked panelists to define an “assault rifle.”
Sidelines could not confirm this clip’s validity despite an extensive search. Phillips mentioned the interview in previous talks.
“Cabot emphasized that conservatives should not be afraid to speak their minds and share the truth,” MTSU’s Turning Point chapter said about the event. “He noted that organizations like Turning Point USA provide a space on campus for like-minded conservatives to connect, engage in meaningful discussions and build friendships. We would love to create a stronger community on campus.”
Turning Point will host Victoria Robinson on March 18, Spencer Lindquist on March 20, Taylor Winston on April 3 and Leigh-Allyn Baker on April 16.
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