Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and the founding editor-in-chief of the right-wing media company The Daily Wire, spoke to a packed audience in Bailey Hall on Monday in an event titled “What’s at Stake on November 5th.” During this talk, Shapiro discussed the upcoming presidential election and fielded questions about intersectionality, free speech, LGBTQ+ politics and former President Donald Trump.
Shapiro was invited to speak on campus by Cornell Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation — an organization focused on promoting conservative views to the younger generations — as part of Shapiro’s Fall Campus Tour. Cornell Republicans declined to comment on the event.
Two hours before the event began, students were already lined up outside Bailey Hall in anticipation of an evening of sharing perspectives and engaging in discussion. Roughly 1,300 students attended the event.
While attendees filed in, they passed by a designated protest area outside Bailey Hall. The space, signified by a hand-written sign taped to a stone wall reading “Demonstration Area,” remained unused throughout the event.
Once students took their seats, Shapiro began to outline why students should not support Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Shapiro began this 20-minute-long speech by arguing why “intersectional wokeness must die.”
Shapiro defined “intersectional wokeness” as a “hideous ideology” that assumes that “if one group is underperforming economically, it must be that they’ve been victimized by the overarching system, … and if one group has succeeded, that means that they must be exploiters.”
Shapiro voiced his concerns about Harris, criticizing her “pledge to kill the filibuster … to permanently stack the Senate in favor of Democrats, [and] to stack the Supreme Court or term limit the Supreme Court.”
Toward the end of his speech, Shapiro made the case for voting for Trump, which began with what he saw as the stakes of the 2024 election: “the preservation of institutions.”
“I’ve given up on the question of whether presidential candidates should be rich in character,” Shapiro said. Instead, Shapiro explained that he sees politicians not as heroes or exemplars but as analogous to “plumbers.”
“They are there to fix the toilet, and if they fix the toilet, that’s pretty much something I care about,” Shapiro said. “Sure, it could be better. I would love it if we didn’t have the constant tweeting and the stream of bizarre jokes — that’d be great. But you know what I really care about? Whether the toilet is running or not.”
Additionally, Shapiro expressed support for Trump’s foreign policy positions.
“President Trump was responsible for the most burgeoning peaceful era in Middle Eastern history, specifically because he was strong on foreign policy in the Middle East,” Shapiro said. “[After Trump,] the world is on fire from the border to the East to Ukraine.”
After his speech, students lined up to ask questions ranging from foreign politics to polling, with a specific emphasis on gender and sexuality and freedom of speech. Shapiro urged students who disagreed with him to move to the front of the line. An event organizer also appeared to adjust the line order after talking to students waiting to ask questions.
One student named Bruce referenced videos of Shapiro discussing “transgenderism.” Bruce asked Shapiro what his aim in debating “transgenderism” is and about what a “political solution” would be. The student concluded by asking, “What makes my right to exist any less valuable than yours?”
Shapiro maintained that he did not deny the right of transgender people to exist. However, he argued that he should not have to agree with the way transgender people characterize themselves.
“I’m not challenging your right to exist as a human, but I can disagree with your opinion about yourself,” Shapiro said. “The idea that we have to, as a society, redefine categories of male and female to fit people who believe that they are a member of the opposite sex … is an assault on truth.”
Shapiro said, “Do I have a solution to [gender dysphoria]? No, I’m not a psychologist or a scientist. What I know is not a solution to that is pretending things that are not true.”
Quinn Reinhardt ’25, who identified himself as a gay republican voting for Donald Trump, said that many in the LGBTQ+ community feel that liberal media produces a climate of fear regarding former president Trump and the Republican party.
In regards to this fear, Reinhardt asked Shapiro, “What message do you have for those individuals, particularly undecided, to address their concerns and potentially change their perspectives?”
Shapiro responded that Trump, as opposed to more traditional Republicans, has done a lot to move the Republican party closer to the left on LGBTQ+ issues. Shapiro said that at the Republican National Convention, Trump “literally took the Democratic platform” on LGBTQ-related issues. However, Shapiro made clear that he personally disagreed with recognizing gay marriage in public life as he argued the tax benefits of marriage are for child production.
“[A traditional] view of marriage remains a very strong belief for many of us [in the Republican Party], including me. I’m a man of traditional marriage,” Shapiro said.
In an interview with The Sun after the talk, Reinhardt said that he was satisfied with Shapiro’s response and that he believed his ability to disagree while still informing was commendable. After the Q&A, Reinhardt maintained his support for Trump.
“Whether or not the majority of the Republican Party shares a belief, if a candidate has not acted on the beliefs of those said constituents, then it really does not have any impact or bearing on my decision,” Reinhardt said.
While Rushika Prasad ’26 — who asked a question about Shaprio’s commitment to improving discourse — did not believe that the event on campus furthered substantive discussion, Prasad said it provided a desired space for political conversation.
“In his time here, he provided what both parties wanted, which was conversation about the topics that he believed [in],” Prasad said. “Do I think he necessarily furthered the quality of free speech on campus? No. But was this an event that people wanted for purposes of entertainment? Yes.”