Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed conservative journalist, author of Unmasked, and Editor-at-Large Andy Ngo to the newsmaker line to discuss his recovery process from a violent attack, his work at The Post Millennial, and Antifa’s presence as security at events central to the left-wing agenda.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line our good friend Andy Ngo, who is the editor-at-large at Post Millennial and one of the bravest conservative journalists in America today. Good morning, Andy.
Ngo: Hi, thanks for having me on.
Leahy: We are delighted to have you on. Andy – first, how is your health? I know you were attacked by some Antifa thugs a couple of years ago. How are you feeling?
Ngo: Well, for those who have been victim to traumatic brain injuries, that unfortunately quite often is a lifelong recovery process.
So even though it won’t ever be the same as before the brain injury in 2019, I’ve learned to deal with and work around the various changes and difficulties. But I think for the most part I’m doing a lot better, thankfully.
Leahy: What are your biggest challenges in recovery? What’s the biggest thing right now as you deal with it today that you’re still working on?
Ngo: So in the first year, I had a lot of balance and cognitive speech issues which were treated in various therapies that I attended through a medical center. But today I think it manifests mostly through memory.
And as a journalist, I’m not able to recall as quickly and as sharply various details as I was before, which is particularly challenging when doing live interviews or whatnot.
It actually can be very frustrating. And I really hate that my assailants were able to take something away from me seemingly permanently. But I think overall I’m actually very lucky to be alive, because when I was hospitalized for the June 2019 assault with brain bleeding, I could have died.
So I’m really just trying to center gratitude and think about how things that could have been more severe fortunately did not happen.
Leahy: Andy, were your assailants ever arrested and charged and tried for the crime of attacking you?
Ngo: No, they were not.
Leahy: That has to be another thing that is just galling to you. Were their identities known but they were just let off the hook by Portland police and prosecutors? Is that what happened?
I’ve always felt like the Portland police did not investigate the assault, which was caught partially on video, a viral video that some of your listeners, many of your listeners, may have seen at this point.
Because after I was hit on the head and face repeatedly and bloodied, then they threw all their drinks all over me. Some of the identities were known, actually. And in 2020, I filed a civil lawsuit against some of those assailants and that is still an ongoing case.
And so there’s a legal fund with the Center for American Liberty. Conservative attorney Harmeet Dhillon is my lead counsel on that case.
So there’s a legal fund for that if people are able to donate to, please. You can read more about the assailants in the lawsuit that was filed in 2020 and amended last year.
Leahy: We are praying for your continued recovery, Andy. And I have to say journalism has some risks today, but you’ve been on the front line. You are one of the bravest journalists in modern American history, and I salute you for that.
Ngo: Thank you very much for your kind words, sir.
Leahy: You are also the editor-at-large at Post Millennial. How long have you been with them?
Ngo: Yes, sir. I’ve been there since the end of 2019. It’s an online news publication originally headquartered in Canada. Earlier this year it was acquired, under American ownership.
It focuses on news reporting on a lot of stories that are inconvenient to the mainstream left. I’m here today to be – many of the things that I report on, for example, is about Antifa, about stories in the culture wars, things that are dismissed in the mainstream press as inconvenient to certain narratives they would like to uphold.
Leahy: Andy, there are so many things that fit in that category right now. One of the things we’ve been tracking here, of course, is all the drag-queen shows going on all throughout Tennessee that some have gone on, some of them canceled.
There was one in one in Chattanooga where a little child was encouraged to, and did, touch the groin of one of these drag queen dance performers. And then down in Memphis, there was a drag queen show at the Museum of Science and History that was canceled due to protest.
Is that one of the areas that you’re tracking, or what are the other areas have you been reporting on at Post Millennial of late?
Ngo: I do report on these controversial drag and LGBTQ events because often there is a nexus of violent extremism, not from the event actually itself, but those who come out in support of the event, often Antifa – who I report on, who I wrote a book on that came out last year – they’ve taken it on as one of their new causes, now that they don’t have Donald Trump in office to oppose anymore, is the drag queen cause.
So they, in many states, particularly Texas, will come up and act as volunteer security for these various so-called family-friendly, controversial drag events.
What’s been particularly surprising to me, I think, is that in the current culture wars, it’s really taking place in states, in areas where many people think that these types of Antifa and/or drag queen events don’t happen.
But it’s been in Texas. It’s been in Tennessee. You just talked about a couple of events that have been happening and … extremely controversial.
Leahy: You told me something I didn’t know, which is that Antifa is acting kind of as the security thugs, if you will, around these “family-friendly” drag queen events. Is this part of an overall strategy from Antifa to destabilize America?
Ngo: It’s part of it. They want to turn society as we know it upside down. And in 2020 they used the excuse of fighting for racial justice and Black Lives Matter to carry out violence and destruction in the form of riots and attacks on businesses, properties, citizens, police departments, and courthouses.
In many ways, one could actually call the acts of violence that happened – organized violence that happened, particularly in cities like where I am from, Portland, Oregon – as insurrections, or uprisings.
They need an excuse to carry out violence and/or organizing, and it’s always in opposition to something. After 2020 and in 2021, they also acted as security/fighters for the pro-vaccine and masking cause.
They call themselves anarchist communists who oppose the U.S. government, but quite often they enforce the goals and agenda of the left-wing liberal technocracy, or Democrats, actually to be direct.
     Leahy: And what’s the difference these days between those two.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Andy Ngo” by Andy Ngo.Â
