#Nicholas Sandmann slams ACLU staffer for saying university shouldn’t admit him

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Nicholas Sandmann
Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via AP

Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington Catholic student who settled lawsuits with CNN and the Washington Post for defamation, slammed the American Civil Liberties Union official in Kentucky who chastised his university for granting him admission.

In an op-ed published by Fox News Thursday, Sandmann, now 18, denounced Samuel Crankshaw, an ACLU communications staffer and Transylvania University alumni, for criticizing the school for accepting the pro-Trump teen.

“Beginning the college year during the coronavirus pandemic is difficult enough for millions of students. But the beginning of my freshman year at Transylvania University in Kentucky is being made even more difficult by an unwarranted attack against me by the cancel culture due to my conservative views,” the former Covington Catholic student wrote.

Sandmann discussed his experience becoming a famous face after video of him at the 2019 March for Life rally in a confrontation with a Native American activist went viral.

The video that initially went viral was largely misleading, and did not show how the Native American elder confronted the students. Multiple news outlets incorrectly and quickly claimed Sandmann was the aggressor.

Sandmann settled the lawsuits he filed against the media outlets for an undisclosed sum.

In his op-ed, Sandmann went after Crankshaw for arguing that he did not deserve admission to the school based on his political leanings.

“I have never met Crankshaw. He knows nothing about me besides news stories regarding my trip to Washington and lawsuit. Yet still, he tries to cancel me and demand that I be denied admission to college. Why? Because he seems outraged that my conservative values don’t align with his left-wing ideology.

“So should only liberals and those on the far-left be able to get a college education? Should there be an ideological purity test required that bars conservatives and Republicans? That’s a pretty frightening idea and sounds like something you would expect in a totalitarian state, not a democracy where we are all guaranteed free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution,” he wrote.

Sandmann then turned his attention to the ACLU itself.

“The ACLU claims to support free speech but, at least where Crankshaw seems to be concerned, that only applies if you share his ideas. While he works for an organization founded on inclusivity, he is quick to exclude differing opinions. If you are a conservative like me, watch out. The intolerant left might come for you, too,” Sandmann warned.