Who Is Lucian Wintrich? Gateway Pundit Correspondent, White Nationalist, Arrested For Assault

UPDATE 12:50 a.m. EST— Wintrich took to Twitter to announce that he had been released from police custody. He also said that it was “really unfortunate” that some of the college students “felt the need to be violent and disruptive” during his speech.

Wintrich revealed that he had been arrested on charges of breach of peace in the second degree.

Original Story:

White House correspondent for the far right website The Gateway Pundit, Lucian Wintrich, was arrested after he appeared to assault a woman following his “It’s OK to Be White” speech at the University of Connecticut on Tuesday.

Wintrich’s appearance was sponsored by the college Republican’s student group and according to the group’s Facebook page, Wintrich would “discuss identity politics, liberal victimhood, anti-conservative bias and other hot-button issues.”

During his speech, the conservative commentator was interrupted multiple times by the crowd which shouted him down. Later, he was seen on video waiting at the front of the room where he is confronted by two students. One of them, a woman, appears to grab something—thought to be a copy of his speech— off the podium at which Wintrich is standing and is seen walking away when he chases her up an aisle of stairs, grabbing her and appearing to assault her.

The Hartford Courant reported that Wintrich was removed from the room by campus police shortly after the incident and was taken to a nearby bathroom. The windows in the area were reportedly shattered. Smoke canisters were also reportedly released by the police to clear the area after the alleged assault.

The 29-year-old Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native ’s speech was seen as an opportunity by the college Republicans as an “opportunity to meet someone on the front lines of the media versus Trump battle.”

Wintrich, however, is no stranger to controversy, having faced criticism after tweeting a Photoshopped image of the Sept. 11 attacks, rendering Mr. Trump as the airplane and CNN’s credibility as the World Trade Center. He later deleted the tweet.

Prior to working for Gateway Pundit, he gained notoriety for the website Twinks4Trump, described by the website Mic as a portfolio of "gay men in various states of undress sporting Make America Great Again hats." Wintrich is also reported to be an ally of Milo Yiannopoulos, another openly gay member of the alt-right.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Wintrich has yet to ask a question in a White House briefing but was already confronted by another journalist, Fox News Radio correspondent Jon Decker, when the latter said about Gateway Pundit: “They hate blacks, Jews, Hispanics.”

Wintrich later said on Twitter that Decker had assaulted him by pushing him and “grabbing his arm” and shouting that he was a Nazi.

Gateway Pundit wrote about Wintrich’s arrest Tuesday night and said Wintrich was a victim.

Jim Hoft, the site’s founder, wrote: “After the room was clearing out a far left couple approached Lucian at the podium and began harassing him. At one point the women STOLE Lucian’s material. Lucian screamed at her and jumped at her. The woman fell to the floor and the room erupted!"

“Lucian was the victim of a criminal act. And police took Lucian away in a squad car. This is what you can expect being a conservative on a college campus today,” Hoft further said.

Regular updates were being provided on the website, one of which said Wintrich was missing.

University of Connecticut officials told the Hartford Courant that they were aware of the event, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. in the Andre Schenker Lecture Hall. University spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said the event was not sponsored or organized by the University of Undergraduate Student Government and that it does not involve tuition or public money.

“UConn does not bar speakers on the basis of content. Free speech, like academic freedom, is one of the university’s bedrock principles. That being said, a particular speaker’s or group’s presence on campus doesn’t indicate UConn’s endorsement of the presenter or their message," she added.