A University of Michigan student was arrested Sunday following a confrontation with a conservative social media personality, whom the student reportedly attacked during a free speech tour through Liberty Under Fire USA.
Liz Benichou, who goes by the Twitter handle @basedinmalibu and considers herself a Jewish conservative, was shoved to the ground by the student during a campus stop by Liberty Under Fire USA. This conservative youth organization has made stops at dozens of college campuses as part of its tour defending the free speech rights of conservative and controversial speakers.
Police at the University of Michigan said officers witnessed the assault, arrested the student, and released her pending a warrant, as of Monday, according to the university’s police department. No charges had been filed at that time.
Video posted to X by independent journalist Cam Higby, which has gained more than 8 million views, shows the incident occurring on the university’s campus.
Liberty Under Fire USA had set up a poster board featuring questions regarding whether Islam fits the Western culture, and the student claimed that these posters were a violation against the Muslim community, according to Mediaite.
First, she clapped a man in the face at the table and argued with him about whether the group had the required permit, according to The College Fix, citing The Daily Mail UK. The man told the officer the student had slapped him, but he denied it.
“But I have several f***ing eyewitnesses, I didn’t do f***ing s***,” she said.
After that, the student argued with Benichou, challenging her about how she would have been treated if she had dressed that way in Iran.
“Am I wrong? If you walked around like this in Iran, what would happen to her?” Benichou asks in the video clip.
The student dropped her phone, shoved Benichou to the floor, and tried to kick her. “Don’t talk to me like that!” she shouts. “You wanna f***ing get over here, b****?!”
An unknown bystander pulled her off of Benichou, and campus police put the student on the floor as she resisted. “Instant f***ing karma, b****,” says another bystander.
Throughout the video, voices ask her to stop resisting. “You can’t attack someone who doesn’t like their politics,” somebody can be heard saying.
During her placement into a police vehicle, the student yelled at Benichou, “I should have f***ing killed you when I had the f***ing chance,” as reported by The College Fix. At another point in the video, another voice says, “I wanna kill you.”
“Today, I was physically assaulted simply for showing up and exercising my First Amendment rights,” Benichou says in a statement released through Liberty Under Fire USA. “Political violence has NO place in the United States of America.”
“I am incredibly grateful to the law enforcement officers who acted immediately to protect me,” she said. “I am now in a safe location receiving care, and I am going to be okay. If the intention was to intimidate or silence me, it will not work.”
On X, Benichou tweeted: “I’m okay. This is what happens when you dealing with leftist radicals. THE LEFT IS MORE VIOLENT THAN THE RIGHT!”
According to Liberty Under Fire USA, a woman who supports Abdul El-Sayed, who is the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan and a member of the party’s Progressive Caucus in Congress, attacked and tackled Benichou. They also said Benichou plans to file charges against the woman to the fullest extent of the law and thanked the officers for intervening.
In an interview with Mediaite, Taylor Sharp, Benichou’s manager and CEO of Liberty Under Fire USA, said Benichou hurt her lower back as a result of the fall. “The lady was crashing out and kept going at Liz,” Sharp said.
According to the University of Michigan Police Department, they responded to the unpermitted event on their campus around 5 p.m. Sunday. “As the group was packing up to leave, officers witnessed a University of Michigan student assault a woman not affiliated with the university,” police said as quoted by Daily Mail UK.
This timing does not coincide with Benichou’s claim of the assault having occurred before reaching their table. “The student was taken into custody, processed, and released pending warrant authorization,” the police note. During this process, prosecutors in Washtenaw County consider if the case merits filing charges against the suspect.
They did not provide the suspect’s name. According to social media, the student was a supporter of El-Sayed, but authorities have not confirmed this, and no charges have been announced as of Monday.
Benichou calls herself a “proud Jewish woman” on X.
Cam Higby, who uploaded the video on X, claims that the student was an El-Sayed supporter. Neither he nor Liberty Under Fire USA has provided evidence, and El-Sayed’s campaign has not responded so far, as of Monday.
El-Sayed is a progressive Democrat; he previously served as head of the Detroit Health Department. On Aug. 4, El-Sayed won the party’s Senate nomination after narrowly defeating US Congresswoman Haley Stevens. El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, the former Congress representative, during Tuesday’s general election, as reported by Fox 2 Detroit.
