Arizona State University (ASU) decided to cancel a prominent conservative program’s first annual fundraiser scheduled for next month, and there are conflicting explanations behind their decision. The event was arranged to honor prominent community leaders Dan and Carleen Brophy; 100 percent of the event proceeds were to go to the program.
Three different reasons for the event’s cancellation were given to different parties involved in the event. The first two related to technicalities: the uptick in COVID-19 cases, and one unnamed faculty member’s failure to follow ASU rules. The third had to do with a more contentious topic: the featured speakers.
ASU’s decision means that the program, Political History and Leadership (PHL), may not obtain funds it anticipated from the event, which was to take place at the Desert Botanical Garden. Each guest would have paid $250 for attendance, and tables of eight would’ve pulled in $2,000. The PHL Program is part of the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies.
AZ Free News learned that ASU informed several of the featured speakers that the event was canceled due to the increase in COVID-19 cases.
Scientists hypothesize that COVID-19 likely functions as a seasonal disease. Last year, the case counts for February were nominal after the holiday spike.
AZ Free News also learned that ASU President Michael Crow wasn’t aware of the event or its cancellation, and that ASU would reschedule. However, emails obtained by AZ Free News indicated that the ASU administration was responsible for canceling the event.
ASU spokesman Jerry Gonzalez told AZ Free News a slightly different story. Gonzalez said that a faculty member broke the university’s scheduling protocol. When we asked which protocol was broken, ASU said it didn’t have any more information to provide.
“The event at the Desert Botanical Garden was canceled due to a breach of scheduling protocol by a faculty member in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies,” said Gonzalez. “The university welcomes the opportunity for this event to be rescheduled following the required protocols.”
AZ Free News also inquired of the ASU Foundation, which was in charge of receiving the program funds earned from the event and approving any event planning. They didn’t respond to any of our emails.
A third potential reason surrounding the event cancellation had nothing to do with logistics. Some reported that they were informed that the event was canceled due to controversy over the choice of guest speakers: Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) and former Utah congressman and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz.
In a press release, Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi derided ASU based on the claim that they canceled the fundraiser over Biggs and Chaffetz.
“It is outrageous that Michael Crow and ASU would cancel an ASU Foundation Fundraiser because they oppose the views and philosophy of the featured speakers attending the event. It is becoming clear that woke cancel culture has taken over every office at the University,” said Mussi. “ASU doesn’t have a problem with liberal activists and public officials appearing at the school for various events. It is well known that Democrat politicians, including US Senator Kyrsten Sinema, have in the past or currently work for the University at taxpayer expense. It only becomes a problem when the speaker is a conservative. If Michael Crow is going to surrender to the ‘cancel culture’ mob, then he is no longer fit to be ASU President and should resign.”
Those registered for the PHL event will receive full refunds.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) asserted that the left-leaning critics of comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan’s COVID-19 diagnosis reveals their true motives: vaccine mandates, with indifference to treating the infection. Biggs tweeted that the Left’s derision of Rogan for not being vaccinated was indicative of their real intentions.
“The Left’s anger that Joe Rogan used something other than a vaccine to fight Covid-19 is revealing,” tweeted Biggs on Thursday. “They don’t actually care about treating those infected. They just want to control you through vaccine mandates.”
On Wednesday, Rogan announced he’d been diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier that week. He reported feeling weary and run-down with a headache when he returned home on Saturday, and later developed a fever.
Rogan said that he felt his worst on Sunday, just before taking a cocktail of recommended and experimental treatments – including the antimalarial drug ivermectin, which has become controversial as of late for mainly being a “horse dewormer.”
“So we immediately threw the kitchen sink at it: all kinds of meds: monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-Pack, Prednisone – everything. And I also got an NAD drip and an IV drip, and I did that three days in a row,” said Rogan.
In response, a wide variety of outlets and leftist pundits claimed that Rogan was receiving the specific preparation of ivermectin used as a horse dewormer to treat his COVID-19. Among these critics were Yahoo! News, CNET, and CNN.
Even the FDA has mocked those considering reliance on the drug as a treatment for COVID-19. They shared an article warning against the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, discussing the differences in brief between physician-prescribed ivermectin with the preparations given to horses as a dewormer.
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” tweeted the FDA.
However, ivermectin has proven to have a growing number of life-saving uses in humans. Several researchers won the Nobel Prize as recently as 2015 for discovering that the drug proved effective against roundworm parasites and malaria.
Rogan reported feeling progressively better since his Sunday diagnosis, and “great” on Wednesday.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs and his Republican colleagues on the Oversight and Reform Committee called on National Economic Council Director Brian Deese to provide answers about how the Biden Administration plans to fix its self-made inflation crisis.
In April inflation increased at its fastest pace in more than a decade. Over the past year, food is up 3.5 percent, gas is up 22 percent, lumber is up 250 percent, housing is up 11 percent, and new cars are up 9 percent.
The Republicans claim the Biden Administration’s economic policies have “disproportionately impacted middle class Americans, especially those hit hardest by Democrat lockdowns.”
“The exponential rise in inflation since the Biden Administration took office shows the clear consequences of massive deficit spending and the fallout from installing an extreme left-wing agenda,” wrote the Republicans. “The Biden Administration has pushed trillions of dollars of taxpayer money out the door with little consideration of the adverse consequences … The obvious consequence of reckless government spending is inflation.”
The Republicans claim that since January, Biden and Congressional Democrats have “rushed trillions of dollars out the door and propose to spend trillions more under the guise of infrastructure and COVID-19 relief.”
The Oversight Republican lawmakers concluded, “Inflation is a regressive tax on hard-working Americans. Those families hardest hit by the burdensome Democrat COVID-19 lockdowns are now the ones hardest hit by the Biden Administration’s harmful economic policies.” In their letter, the Republican lawmakers request any and all information from the Biden Administration relating to their plans to combat inflation before the crisis gets further out of hand.
In their letter, and in what they say is an attempt to “to better understand the Biden Administration’s approach to fighting inflation,” the Republicans have requested the following documents and information, for the period between January 20, 2021 and the present:
All documents and communications related to the Biden Administration’s strategy to reduce inflation and reduce consumer prices.
All documents and communications between and among the National Economic Council regarding inflation and the rising Consumer Price Index.
All documents and communications regarding inflation and the rising Consumer Price Index between the National Economic Council and the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Commerce.
All economic and inflation projections created by the National Economic Council or elsewhere in the Biden Administration.
The Republicans are requesting answers “as soon as possible, but no later than June 16, 2021.”
As a bill to prohibit vaccine passports appears to have stalled in the Arizona Legislature, Congressman Biggs this week introduced his No Vaccine Passports Act to prevent federal agencies from issuing any standardized documentation that could be used to certify a U.S. citizen’s COVID-19 status to a third party, such as a restaurant or an airline.
Biggs’ bill follows a report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is encouraging vaccine providers to push people to share their personal health and vaccination data through their smartphones. Healthcare professionals and civil rights activists are now that surveillance system could be used to create a vaccine passport.
“I am profoundly disturbed that the Biden Administration would even consider imposing vaccine passports on the American people. My private healthcare decisions—and yours—are nobody else’s business,” said Biggs. “Vaccine passports will not help our nation recover from COVID-19; instead, they will simply impose more Big Brother surveillance on our society.
Biggs applauded Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “for being an early leader against vaccine passports at the state level. My No Vaccine Passports Act builds on his efforts and will further protect Americans’ privacy rights and fundamental freedoms.”
On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting vaccine passports. Abbott said a system to track those who have been inoculated against COVID-19 infringes on citizens’ rights.
This is the correct direction to go. Medical records should always remain confidential. No one should ever have to show papers for private medical decisions made between you and your doctor. #VaccinePassport#covidhttps://t.co/qpIAvvpGav
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) April 6, 2021
Arizona State Rep. Bret Roberts has proposed the state-level bill to prohibit vaccine passports. The bill has stalled due to the efforts of at least one lawmaker who believes private businesses should be allowed to require them.
