SCOOP: Students identify teacher who berated conservatives in viral video
Students say they have identified the man at the center of a viral video first reported by Campus Reform.
In the footage, the man who says he teaches at the University of Iowa is seen berating conservative students.
Three University of Iowa students have told Campus Reform that they know the identity of the man recently caught on tape shouting down a group of conservative students as they were tabling on campus to recruit new members.
In video footage obtained exclusively by Campus Reform, a man who identifies himself as a teacher at the University of Iowa is heard telling students “You’re spouting rhetorical bullshit you’re pulling out of your ass,” “you’re a dumb student organization that’s peddling bullshit,” among other statements that included profanities.
The confrontation happened as members of UIowa’s Turning Point USA chapter were tabling on campus trying to recruit new members.
Campus Reform has asked UIowa to comment on the situation multiple times but has not received a response. On Wednesday, three members of the University of Iowa Turning Point USA chapter identified the man in the video to Campus Reform as Teaching Assistant Christopher Clough-Hunter, who teaches in the Communication Studies department, according to his campus profile.
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Mike Helmich, who is one of the students in the video who engaged with the TA, is the UIowa TPUSA chapter president and told Campus Reform that he believes Clough-Hunter is the man in the video. Seth Torchia, the chapter vice president who was also present when the video was recorded told Campus Reform that he too believes the man in the video is Clough-Hunter. Cat Wilson, a UIowa TPUSA member who took the video, also said Clough-Hunter is the man seen shouting at them in the video.
Campus Reform tried to reach Clough-Hunter multiple times but did not receive a response in time for publication. Campus Reform also reached out to several individuals in the Communications Studies Department, where Clough-Hunter teaches, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Besides the students’ claims that the man in the video is Clough-Hunter, several other factors from the video align with what is publicly available from his biography. In the video, the TA states that he “lived in the Netherlands.”
A Facebook profile under the name of Christopher Clough-Hunter says the individual studied at the University of Amsterdam. The same Facebook profile lists him as currently studying Rhetoric at the University of Iowa. Clough-Hunter’s university profile also lists him as having taught Rhetoric courses.
[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Student caught on video throwing away conservative group’s signs]
The TA says in the video that he “grew up in Ohio,” which also lines up with the Facebook profile saying Clough-Hunter is from Canton, Ohio.
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