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GOP lawmakers seek to defund HBCU after it canceled Republican’s commencement speech
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FIRST ON FOX: South Carolina Republicans are pushing to strip funding from the state’s only public HBCU after the university rescinded Republican Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s commencement invitation following student protests and security concerns.
What began as a student protest over a conservative commencement speaker, resulted in «credible safety threats,» according to Evette, who spoke to Fox News Digital after her commencement address at South Carolina State University was canceled. Following an uproar from students, who decried Evette’s views on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), abortion and her support for President Donald Trump, among other issues, the University president put out a statement indicating that «out of an abundance of caution for safety» the college would be «mov[ing] in a different direction for this Spring commencement.»
«From the outset, our decision to invite Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette as our Spring 2026 Commencement speaker was rooted in her record as a business leader and entrepreneur. As the founder and former CEO of a company that grew from a startup into a billion-dollar enterprise, she represents the kind of innovation, resilience and real-world achievement that aligns with the aspirations of our graduates,» the statement read. «We are grateful to Lt. Gov. Evette for her willingness to engage with our students and for her time and consideration in accepting the invitation.»
NORTH CAROLINA TEEN SUES SCHOOL AFTER CHARLIE KIRK TRIBUTE SPARKED ‘CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION’ AND CENSORSHIP
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette announces her bid for governor on July 14, 2025. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Pressure from students, including multiple protests around South Carolina State’s campus, led up to the ultimate decision to rescind the invitation for Evette, which the Lt. Gov. said was sent to her in December. The Lt. Gov. indicated to Fox News Digital that she never publicized her address, or shared publicly what she would speak about.
Evette described the protesters as a «woke mob,» earning her backlash, but she refused to back down from the statement when talking to Fox News Digital. According to Evette, attorneys from South Carolina State called attorneys in her office, telling them the reason for canceling the event was due to «credible threats.»
«It’s what we’ve seen all across the country,» Evette, who is also running for governor in The Palmetto State, told Fox News Digital. «Somebody with a conservative point of view shows up and everybody wants to cancel them. We saw it with Charlie Kirk, and we saw with Riley Gaines, and we’ve seen it with Ben Shapiro. I never thought I’d be in that kind of list, but here we are and it’s a real shame and it has to end.«
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Alexander Conyers, South Carolina State University’s President, announced the decision to rescind Evette’s invitation to a round of applause from students — a decision he said he made personally. In video of the announcement caught by local news, Conyers said he doesn’t want people to think students at South Carolina State are «thugs» or a mob.»
«We are not a mob. We are just aware,» South Carolina State University students, who repeatedly insisted their protests were peaceful, could be heard chanting as they marched in large groups around campus, seen in video shared by local South Carolina reporter Michael White.
Then interim South Carolina State University President stands next to former President Joe Biden during the school’s commencement ceremony in 2021. (MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
«Hey, hey! Ho! Ho! Pamela Evette gots to go!,» the crowds chanted, including at night, around campus.
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In another alleged sit-in-style protest, students were filmed inside a campus building decrying Trump as a pedophile, bigot, racist and a supporter of the police.
«Being conservative is not the issue — that’s alright, we all have our own political views. But she’s explicitly said ‘I am a Trump conservative.’ Okay, if you believe in Trump you support pedophilia, you support bigotry, you support racism, what else, pro-police — the same police that’s killing our people — and also she supports ICE,» one of the sit-in protesters can be heard saying in a video circulating on social media. «She also would like to have — because I’m going to say a concentration camp — that’s not what they calling it but you all want to bring on of those here to or state. We don’t believe in that.»
Zaria Tucker, the South Carolina State Student Government Association President, echoed the point about students’ anger not being about politics during an address at a board of trustees meeting.
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«Commencement is not about politics, but more about representation. What we need as students. Not someone to come and tell us what they need to do as governor, or another position that they’re running for in this state,» Tucker said in the video shared online by White. «But, more to uplift us as students. So, necessarily, that’s what the main goal will always be, as the Student Government Association president.»
In response to the decision from Conyers and South Carolina State University, Republican state legislators from the House Freedom Caucus called the decision by the college «shameful» and «inexcusable» that the university had to cancel Evette’s speech «because her safety could not be guaranteed on a state-funded campus.»
The campus of South Carolina State University. (Jacob Boomsma)
The letter ended by requesting that «no funding» be included in the upcoming version of the state’s funding.
«If the Lt. Gov. of South Carolina is unwelcome due to different political ideologies and an inability to keep her safe, it is time to defund and reevaluate.,» the letter, signed by nine GOP South Carolina State legislators, concluded.
During Evette’s comments to Fox News Digital she said that she and current South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster have always ensured Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the state are funded, noting that despite a Republican super majority in the state legislature «we have been very supportive.» Evette added that President Trump «has done more for them than any president and in history.»
The South Carolina State House is seen in Columbia, South Carolina. (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, the school invited former Democratic Party President Joe Biden to speak at their commencement ceremony in 2021, when Conyers was interim president of the school at the time.
«Where is the faculty and where is the leadership and why aren’t they setting the record straight why do these young people who obviously are very bright — they’re graduating college — not know these basic facts about what’s happening at the university they’re attending.»
south carolina, campus controversy, governors, republicans elections, college
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Una noche junto a los rescatistas argentinos en Venezuela: el pedido urgente por los perros, la tensión por buscar vida y el mural de Maradona
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For the second time in little more than a year, a blast tore through the Moscow suburb of Balashikha, Russia, and left a Russian military figure dead.
On June 9, explosives planted under a BMW detonated as the driver began leaving a parking lot, according to independent Russian outlet The Insider. The outlet identified the man killed as Lt. Gen. Damir Davydov, a Russian Defense Ministry official responsible for supplying missiles and artillery ammunition to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
The location was striking. The explosion occurred roughly 1,150 feet from the site where Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of Russia’s General Staff, was killed in a car bombing in April 2025, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.
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A screen grab from a video shows the car in which Russian Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik was killed, confirmed by Russia’s Investigative Committee, on April 25, 2025, in the Moscow region. (Russian Investigative Committee / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Months before Moskalik’s death, another senior Russian officer was assassinated in Moscow.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, was killed when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded outside an apartment building. A source in Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, told Reuters the agency carried out the operation.
Together, the attacks are part of a broader pattern of assassinations and attempted assassinations targeting senior Russian military figures — a campaign that a European intelligence source says is now exposing tensions inside Putin’s own security system.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, senior Russian military figures have been killed in missile strikes, drone attacks, car bombings, crashes and frontline combat — a toll that, according to a European intelligence source, is now fueling internal tensions between Russia’s military and the FSB, Russia’s powerful domestic security service and successor to the Soviet KGB.
«There are internal frictions between Russian security institutions,» a European intelligence source told Fox News Digital. «The Russian military wants the FSB to guarantee physical protection for Russian generals, but the FSB is opposed to taking responsibility for the military.»
The dispute reflects a deeper rivalry inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s system, where the security services have long held a privileged position over the armed forces, according to multiple sources.
‘PURE HELL’ IN MOSCOW AS UKRAINIAN DRONES STRIKE MAJOR REFINERY SUPPLYING CAPITAL’S FUEL MARKET
«This goes back to Soviet times,» the European intelligence source said. «The security services do not like the military, and the military does not like the security services.»
The central tension, according to the European intelligence source and Russian opposition figure Maxim Katz, is inside Putin’s own system: the war has elevated the importance of the military on the battlefield, while the political structure in Moscow still treats generals as a potential threat.
The result is a paradox for the Kremlin. Russia needs its military commanders to sustain the war, but the security services that dominate Putin’s system appear reluctant to take responsibility for protecting them.
The damaged Kia Sorento lies at the scene where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s army operational training directorate, was killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Dec. 22, 2025. (Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters)
At least 15 Russian generals have been confirmed killed since the full-scale invasion began, according to independent Russian outlet Mediazona.
The toll includes five lieutenant generals, seven major generals and three former generals.
Some died far from Moscow, closer to the battlefield.
Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, deputy commander of Russia’s Southern Military District, was killed in July 2023 in a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile strike on the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk. Maj. Gen. Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, was killed in June 2023 during Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zavadsky, deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps, was killed near Krynky in southern Ukraine in November 2023.
Others were struck inside Russia or in Russian-controlled territory.
Lt. Gen. Alexander Otroshchenko, a senior Russian air force commander, died in a military transport plane crash over occupied Crimea in March 2026. Retired Maj. Gen. Kanamat Botashev, flying for the Wagner Group, was killed in May 2022 after his Su-25 was shot down over Ukraine’s Luhansk region.
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Igor Kirillov was killed Dec. 17, 2024, when an explosive device hidden in a scooter went off outside a building in Moscow, officials said. (AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)
The losses began in the opening weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, when Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of Russia’s 41st Combined Arms Army, and Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Army, were killed.
Katz said the military has long occupied a vulnerable position inside the Russian power structure.
«In Russia, the FSB is the biggest and most powerful security organization, and Putin himself comes from that system,» Katz told Fox News Digital. «The army, on the other hand, has always been viewed by these people as a threat.»
Katz said the Kremlin historically has feared popular military figures because the army is one of the few institutions with the capacity to challenge political power.
«You will not find Russian military men in senior government positions,» Katz said. «Since Stalin, they have been afraid of the army. Whenever there is a relatively well-known military figure with a name of his own, they deal with it somehow — legally, or like with Prigozhin, or like with other generals. In Russia, there is no such thing as a popular general.»
Katz argued that even during wartime, when the military might be expected to gain status, Putin’s system keeps the army politically weak.
«The army does not take part in decision-making,» Katz said. «It is funded now, but everything goes to the war. The generals are rich, but not like ministers or FSB people. Among the elites, they are the most deprived.»
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A view shows flowers placed on a table in front of a board with a photograph of Maj. Gen. Mikhail Gudkov, who, according to local authorities, was recently killed in the Kursk region amid Russia-Ukraine conflict, during an exhibition of soldiers’ portraits in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, July 3, 2025. (Tatiana Meel/Reuters)
That dynamic, Katz said, helps explain why Russian generals may not want the FSB responsible for their protection.
«For them, the FSB is a much bigger threat than the Ukrainian army,» Katz said. «The Ukrainian army kills a general once in a while. The FSB puts generals in prison much faster.»
The European intelligence source said the killings matter not only because of the operational losses, but because of the psychological effect inside the Russian army.
«Putin understands that losing prominent Russian generals can affect morale within the Russian army, which is already low from the Russian perspective,» the source said.
The apparent compromise, according to the European intelligence source, was to shift responsibility away from the FSB.
«The FSB did not want to deal with military protection, so the security service of the Russian presidential administration would take care of those generals,» the source said.
Katz said the internal pressure on Putin may also collide with Russia’s parliamentary elections in September — a moment he believes Western observers are largely ignoring.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has been blamed for ordering numerous assassinations of critics and defectors. ( )
He said the vote will not be free, and the Kremlin is expected to manipulate the results.
But he argued that if public support for Putin’s United Russia party has fallen sharply, it may become harder for the regime to make the official results appear believable.
«Everyone already knows what results they will announce,» Katz said. «The question is whether anyone will believe those results.»
Katz said Putin’s system has long depended not only on control, but on the perception that the Kremlin still commands broad public support.
«Putin has never ruled in a situation where he does not have a majority,» Katz said. «His legitimacy rests on everyone believing that he has majority support. Once everyone believes he does not have a majority, and that he did not just cheat a little but simply drew the results, that is a different story.»
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A portrait of Wagner Group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash two months after launching his brief rebellion, lies on flowers on the grave at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
He compared the potential challenge to authoritarian systems that are forced to move from managed popularity to open coercion.
«Putin cannot lose like Orban,» Katz said. «But if everyone in Russia knows that everyone voted against him and he drew the results in his favor, that would be a new situation. He has never been in that position before.»
Fox News Digital reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian governments for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.
russia, vladimir putin, ukraine, wars
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RNC chair predicts first-ever midterm convention will turn Dallas into ‘Trumpapalooza’ for 2026 fight
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EXCLUSIVE – Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters predicted Wednesday that Republicans will «knock it out of the park» at the party’s first-ever midterm convention, casting the Dallas gathering as a «Trumpapalooza» aimed at firing up GOP voters in a difficult midterm climate.
Gruters spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital a day after President Donald Trump announced the Sept. 9-10 convention in Dallas, an unusual effort to put Trump and the GOP’s 2026 message center stage before voters decide control of Congress.
«It gives us a chance to highlight all the wonderful things this president has done in our effort on this great American comeback to highlight the ideas, policies and people that’s making it happen,» Gruters said.
TRUMP MAKES MAJOR 2026 ANNOUNCEMENT
President Donald Trump applauds on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18, 2024. (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)
National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party’s presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years.
But with Republicans facing a rough political climate as they aim to protect their narrow control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in this year’s elections, they see the midterm convention as an effective vehicle to get their message out.
«We can win. It’s going to start here at the convention. I’m super excited about it,» Gruters emphasized.
And pointing to primary victories in recent weeks by far-left and socialist candidates over the Democratic Party establishment, Gruters said «we’re going to be able to highlight and contrast where the Republican Party is versus what the left is, and the fact that they’re getting pushed and now controlled and being run by these radical leftists that want to fundamentally change our country.»
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Congressional candidate Claire Valdez, Congressional candidate Brad Lander, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier raise their hands during a Get Out the Vote (GOTV) rally at King’s Theater on June 18, 2026, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Party leaders are also hoping the convention will help to energize MAGA voters who don’t always vote when Trump isn’t on the ballot.
Gruters called Trump the «best showman that’s ever existed in politics, bar none… He knows how to deliver these low-propensity voters. He knows how to get people up, motivated, excited about the midterms, and that’s what we’re going to need.»
Currently, the president’s approval ratings remain well underwater, with many Americans rating him poorly on his handling of the economy and on the issue of affordability.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Director of Rapid Response Kendall Witmer told Fox News Digital on Tuesday evening, «The American people can’t afford their bills or to fill up at the pump because of Donald Trump, and Republicans’ response is to throw a multi-million dollar televised celebration for Trump that will only remind Americans of his failed promise to them and tie already flailing Republican swing-seat candidates to a historically unpopular president.»
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Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin addresses party members at the DNC’s summer meeting, on Aug. 25, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
The DNC, which significantly trails the RNC in fundraising, considered holding a midterm convention but decided earlier this year not to move forward with the costly event.
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Witmer emphasized that «Democrats are already hitting the trail and speaking directly with American voters about our plans to cut costs and make health care affordable.
republicans elections, donald trump, midterm elections, politics, republican convention
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