WASHINGTON — Conservative podcaster Michael Knowles will recall facing down hundreds of pro-transgender protesters who forced him to cut a 2023 appearance at the University of Pittsburgh short when he testifies before a Senate panel Tuesday on rising “leftist terrorism.”
The outspoken culture warrior had come to the Pennsylvania campus to debate transgenderism, but was greeted by lefty agitators hurling smoke bombs at police barricades — blocking roads and forcing nearby buildings into a “soft lockdown.”
“Before we reached the stage, we heard an explosion, which caused our security personnel to escort us back into the wings,” Knowles will tell the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, according to prepared remarks shared with The Post.
“A demonstrator, later identified as [Antifa operative Brian] DiPippa, had thrown a lit firework into a group of police officers protecting the rear of the building,” his prepared remarks continue. “The explosion injured several officers, including severe and life-altering injuries to a female officer.”
Between 300 and 350 agitators swarmed the university’s O’Hara Student Center, many of them masked and clad in black attire and some of whom burned an effigy of Knowles.
Inside the auditorium, Knowles was repeatedly disrupted by people yelling phrases like, “Trans lives matter.” Eventually, the campus blasted out a “safety emergency” notification due to the unrest and the debate ended early.
“Even honest liberals have had to admit in recent weeks that left-wing terrorism exceeds right-wing terrorism,” Knowles will say.
“While Democrat politicians and liberal journalists have sought to downplay and even deny the existence of organized, left-wing terror, the attack at the University of Pittsburgh provides just one example among countless of serious and increasing leftist terrorism.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, convened the Tuesday hearing to explore the rise in political violence in the wake of the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Knowles, author of “Reasons to Vote for Democrats,” a satirical blank book, and host of the eponymous Daily Wire show, was tapped as the star witness of the hearing.
The 35-year-old conservative pundit spoke at the first stop of Kirk’s relaunched campus tour in Minnesota, just over a week after the Turning Point USA co-founder’s murder. Some tasteless left-wingers had chanted against Knowles and paraded signs mocking the murder of Kirk.
During his Senate testimony, the conservative podcaster will also recall how FBI agents at the scene helped identify DiPippa and his wife, Krystal, behind whom he hid before hurling one of the smoke bombs.
“Unfortunately, our justice system gave them only a slap on the wrist,” Knowles is set to say. “Throwing an explosive into a crowd of people constitutes attempted murder. Justice calls for life in prison. Our justice system sentenced Brian DiPippa to minimal jail time for ‘obstructing law enforcement.’
“His wife got off with probation.”
During his testimony, Knowles will implore lawmakers to ensure the federal government more aggressively cracks down on rising violence from the left.
“The federal government must act now to stop the consistent and accelerating trend of leftist terrorism,” Knowles will conclude.
“For a legislator to deny the threat and neglect the remedy might once have been chalked up to ignorance; today, it is nothing less than complicity.”
