Conservative commentator and YouTube star Benny Johnson on Wednesday celebrated Democratic men for getting vasectomies and suggested President Donald Trump’s immigration policies would improve the country’s genetic makeup.
The comments were captured in a series of audio recordings from the event, sent to The Waco Bridge on Friday morning by a student attendee.
The event was part of a national tour hosted by Turning Point USA, a nonprofit founded by the late Charlie Kirk that aims to attract young people to the conservative movement. The event was originally advertised as open to the public but at the last minute limited mostly to Baylor students and employees.
While the event’s other headliners, including White House border czar Tom Homan, also touched on themes of immigration control and patriotism, Johnson’s comments connected the deportation of foreign-born immigrants to a project of genetic purity.
“They’re literally taking themselves out of the gene pool, which I think is awesome,” Johnson said of Democratic men who get a vasectomy procedure, before moving on to undocumented immigrants.
“We’re also taking other people out of the (gene) pool,” he continued. “Legal entries by asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border (are) down 99.99%; deportations, ICE detentions, street arrests and voluntary departures are up by 28 times because of this administration.”
Baylor declined to answer specific questions about the speech. However, a Baylor University spokesperson said the school “was not aware he would make those remarks,” in a statement emailed to The Bridge on Friday afternoon.
Johnson began his career as a writer with Buzzfeed. He was fired from that position in 2014 because of alleged plagiarism but later found success as a conservative writer and YouTube commentator and later chief creative officer for Turning Point USA.
Baylor approved the Turning Point USA event and an alternative, progressive event scheduled the same day, positioning the dueling forums within the school’s push for “civil discourse” and free speech.
“We are in the process of conducting after-action reviews of the two events on Wednesday,” the Friday statement said.
Baylor defines civil discourse as: “The practice of relationally deliberating on matters of significant concern in ways that aim to expand knowledge and promote mutual understanding.”
Johnson preceded his gene pool comments earlier in the talk with references to the notion that the U.S. is defined by historically white, Christian culture that has been strained by immigration, an ideology known as ethnonationalism.
“We’re a people and a culture,” Johnson said. “And we have a history, and we’re proud of that history, and that history is European, Christian, that’s what built this country.”
Another remark by Johnson asserted that 80% of the U.S. population would be the “progeny of conservatives” by the year 2100 due in part to low birthrates among liberals. Neither Turning Point USA or its Baylor University chapter immediately responded to a list of questions sent Friday afternoon regarding Johnson’s comments.
The Bridge attempted to reach Johnson for comment through Premier Speakers, of which he’s a client, but did not immediately hear back Friday afternoon. On Wednesday and the days leading up to it, some members of Baylor’s community and staff questioned the idea that Turning Point introduced ideas worth debating, or values consistent with the university’s.
Baylor’s public demonstration policy states that “access to the campus and its buildings and other improvements is limited to those persons with the specific purpose of advancing the institution’s Christian mission.”
