Fifteen New York University students recently asked about Benghazi said they didn’t know anything about the place, and two of the interviewees even said they’d be interested in studying abroad there.
“Honestly, I don’t know much about it,” said one student.
“I’m totally ignorant,” said another.
The interviews were conducted by Charlie Kirk, a 20-year-old who leads a young conservatives movement. He spent about an hour in the NYU-based Washington Square Park last week talking with NYU students on video as they walked through.
He said of the 15 students he interviewed, not one reacted negatively or with concern when he asked them about Benghazi, Libya. He started by asking them if they had heard of a new study abroad program in Benghazi, which is not a real program, but was used as a conversation starter. Then he asked them if they’d heard about Benghazi in general. Then he questioned them on if they’d study abroad there.
“Not one person identified there was a terror attack, not one person said there was anything that happened,” Kirk said Thursday in an interview with The College Fix. “I thought the kids would be, ‘Oh, what? I don’t want to go there, that’s a hot spot.’”
He said the most impressive reaction came from a student who said the area sounded familiar and needed to do more research before answering.
Kirk posted a video compilation of a few of his most notable interviews, he said, adding he is surprised and disheartened by the overall response.
“It’s a big deal to a lot of conservatives and Americans, but it’s not even that it’s not a big deal for young Americans, they don’t even know what happened or even where it is,” Kirk said.
Whether the interviewed NYU students might have known about the Benghazi attack and controversy and not said anything about it, Kirk said it’s within the realm of possibility – but unlikely.
“I know if I was asked I would have said, ‘C’mon, is this a joke?’” he said.
Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, said he was inspired to interview students after a conservation he had with two friends at Ivy League schools over the Christmas season who also claimed ignorance of the Benghazi terrorist attack, which took place Sept. 11, 2012, and resulted in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
He said he believes what he discovered at NYU is a microcosm of what one would find at any university.
“NYU is a top-tier university in the country, it would just get worse from there at other colleges,” he said.
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