Indiana University College Republicans Host LibsOfTiktok, Threatening Leftist Activists Arrested

The College Republicans at Indiana University (IU) defied leftist threats and a hostile smear campaign by local media, bringing Representative Jim Banks and social media star LibsOfTikTok, also known as Chaya Raichik, to their campus to speak.

Almost immediately after the event began, leftist hecklers assembled to try and censor the speakers, hurling insults and threats at the IO College Republicans. The threats were so severe that local police guarded the special guests and organizers, delayed the event by 15 minutes, and even arrested several students.

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An IU “Antifascist” being detained following violent threats. Photo credit: The Bloomingtonian

IU College Republican member and event attendee Owen Hurd described the escalating tension just before the speakers walked on.

“At about 11:30 (30 minutes before the event was supposed to start) we received word to not show up until the start of the event due to security concerns,” he said. “IUPD were surrounding the room and about 20 hecklers were outside… within the first few minutes many hecklers had been removed for threats and interruptions.”

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Event attendee and repeat heckler with a sign insulting LibsOfTikTok (Photo Credit: The Bloomingtonian)

Despite the rough start, Raichik and Congressman Banks deflected loaded leftist questions and eloquently responded to hostile remarks. There was even common ground reached with the more free-speech liberals in the room regarding the threat of leftist political indoctrination in schools. The event came to a smooth close after half an hour of Q&A.

Hurd told CRA news that local student journalists joined in the smear campaign immediately after the event concluded. “After the event a ‘journalist’ there recorded hecklers who had been thrown out of the event, and suggested we had barred people from our event,” he explained. “This was obviously not true.”

Hurd also explained that the local student paper, “Indiana Daily Student” tried delegitimizing the significant threats to the safety of CR members and speakers. “In addition, [the Indiana Daily Student] was neglecting to report the efforts made by the PSC, Antifa, and IU for Palestine to encourage violence against CRs and opposition to the event.”

Apparently ignorant of the arrests and police presence, the Indiana Daily Student reported in its retrospective coverage of the event that “[we] cannot independently confirm what attempts were made to have the event shut down.”

Hurd said hostile leftist organizations had desperately tried to derail the event the night before. “We received word that Red Orchestra (an Indiana ANTIFA chapter), the Palestine Solidarity Committee and IU for Palestine had all made posts encouraging their group members to show up,” Hurd said. 

In the buildup to the event, the Red Orchestra sent out the event details and issued vague orders to its members: “You know what to do.”

However, the arrests and vague orders are just the surface of an underlying, abhorrent trend of violent fantasies against political opponents from local leftist groups.

A CRA news investigation into one of IU College Republican’s detractors, “Red Orchestra,” found a series of buried tweets idealizing radical political violence against normal people. One retweet by the organization reads, “We cannot respond to [the overturning of Roe v. Wade] with harm reduction alone. We have to make it as difficult as possible for them to impose their rulings. We have to make sure that there are consequences for those who seek to curtail our autonomy. Loving means fighting.”

Other messaging is less subtle. “The Supreme Court has declared war. This is war. It's not protest. It's not civil unrest. It's a war for survival,” another timeline retweet regarding the legal status of killing unborn children reads.

Much of the account is inaccessible because Red Orchestra privated its Twitter account shortly after fellow protesters were arrested for threats of violence and journalist Andy Ngo chastized them on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Despite the violent threats from multiple radical left-wing organizations, the event was an extraordinary victory for the club. Not only did the leftists fail to intimidate the College Republicans and cancel their event, but their efforts to heckle the speakers into surrendering miserably failed as well. Congressman Banks and Chaya Raichik succeeded in their mission to spread their reasonable message.

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Posting on X after the event, the IU College Republicans said, “Despite numerous attempts to SHUT DOWN the event, College Republicans SUCCESSFULLY hosted Jim Banks and Chaya Raichik today!”