Kyle Rittenhouse stormed offstage after facing protesters’ jeers during an event at the University of Memphis on Wednesday night.
Rittenhouse was invited to speak on the Second Amendment and the “lies of Black Lives Matter” by the campus chapter of conservative student group Turning Point USA, but students who spoke to local Tennessee outlet Action News 5 say Rittenhouse went directly into Q&A mode at the event, where things then descended into chaos.
Video from Rittenhouse’s appearance shared on X showed the gun rights advocate shut down when asked about TPUSA’s CEO Charlie Kirk’s history of race-baiting comments.
The questioner listed some of Kirk’s comments, reminding people how the vanguard of the young MAGA movement denounced Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, called Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson an affirmative action hire, and, most recently, said he doubts the qualifications of Black airplane pilots.
When pressed if those statements were racist, Rittenhouse smugly responded, “I don’t know anything about that.”
The audience erupted in boos while the voice behind the video shouted, “It’s a yes or no question, Kyle!”
Pressing him for an answer, the original questioner asked Rittenhouse, “After all the things I just told you, would you consider that hate speech?”
“I’m not going to comment on that,” he replied, prompting the audience to shout him down.
“Deflection!” the person behind the camera yelled repeatedly.
Unwilling to endure the backlash, Rittenhouse threw a hand up and walked offstage, turning protesters’ heckling into cheers.
While the event was said to be sold out, students told Action News 5 the auditorium was less than half-full, made up of about 50 to 60 people.
Rittenhouse ― who was acquitted of killing two men and injuring another during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, earning him the status of right-wing darling ― is next scheduled to speak at Western Kentucky University.
This post originally appeared on HuffPost.