MSNBC's Chris Hayes mocked authorities' attempts to disperse protesters throughout universities across the country in an X post.
On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott instructed Texas State Troopers to shut down protests at University of Texas at Austin (UTA) and arrest those who refuse to comply with state authorities. Protestors at UTA appeared to become more agitated as state troopers arrived on campus.
In a now deleted post, the MSNBC host said, "I'm sure the National Guard shooting a few college kids will settle things down and shut everyone up."
Hayes explained his decision to remove the post in a follow up X post on Wednesday.
"I deleted a tweet because it was angrily glib," Hayes wrote. "But the earnest point is that sending armed national guard troops to break up peaceful student protests is a terrible and dangerous idea."
Earlier Wednesday, Hayes criticized the arrest of university students engaging in protest.
"As a sheer tactical matter, mass arrests of the protesters seems to be having the opposite of its intended effect," he wrote.
Other political commentators across both sides of the aisle similarly suggested the optics of arresting protesters did not fare well for public opinion.
"Are you freaking kidding me? You have a wide-open border with criminals pouring in by the thousands daily," wrote BlazeTV's Lauren Chen. "This is a blatant assault on the First Amendment."
"Miss me with that HaTe SpEeCh B.S.," she added.
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker similarly called Abbott's order into question.
"Police retaliation against peaceful demonstration is absolutely against free speech," he wrote on X. "Conservatives always rally around the former and weaponize the latter against the left. 'Free speech' in the U.S. only goes in one direction."
The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh also responded to Abbott's decision, noting he appeared to cite "hate speech" as his objection to the protests.
"'Hate speech' is a meaningless term and it should never be used as a pretense to ban, censor, arrest, punish or silence anyone, ever, under any circumstance," Walsh wrote.
In response, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie agreed with Walsh and noted he would never vote to validate claims of "hate speech" in Congress.
"'Hate speech,' 'hate crimes,' and many 'conspiracy' crimes are just real world manifestations of Orwell's dystopian thought crimes," Massie wrote in reference to George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. "Don't ever expect me to vote to substantiate such things."
At least 20 people were arrested at UTA including a local Fox affiliate photojournalist.
