TAMPA—A visit to a university by a Democratic president who espouses a slate of progressives policies, including student loan debt relief, should—as the stereotype goes—spur a frenzy of starry-eyed support by “woke” youth indoctrinated by leftist ideologues.
But when President Joe Biden came to the University of Tampa on Feb. 9—the first stop of a planned national tour to push his administration’s initiatives—there may have been more consternation among students about chlorine levels at the Benson Alex Riseman Aquatic Center than what he had to say.
There were no cheering mobs waving signs, chanting slogans, or marching about protesting in plurals rather than proper gender pronouns on the 8,300-student campus wedged into downtown Tampa.
Nor were there any robust anti-Biden demonstrations seen or heard anywhere near Plant Hall, where the president delivered his address to a select audience of media and ticketed invitees that included few students.
In fact, it was just another sunny, 80-something-degree day on campus except classes were canceled—some roads, walkways, and buildings were closed—uniformed motorcycle cops and men in black suits and shades were everywhere, and the president was coming.
Biden’s motorcade at around 12:30 p.m. drew a crowd of about 500 along UT University Drive. By the time he left more than three hours later, maybe 200 or so were there to see him off.
“It is exciting to see something like this but scary, though, with all the security around,” said Reese Garrett, a UT student from North Carolina, who said she likes Biden and “I hope he’s successful.”
Her friend, fellow UT student Emma Mathew from Indiana, said her family attends the same church as former governor and Vice President Mike Pence.
Mixed Views of Biden
“I don’t have anything against [Biden],” Mathew said. “He’s more to the left than I am, but I don’t hold anything against him.”
Christian Fickenscher, a UT nursing student from Philadelphia, said, “I’m not a big fan” of the president but, nevertheless, “I’m really excited that the president came to our school—a big very honor.”
Retirees Kathy and Katherine, who didn’t want to give their last names, said they only heard that morning the president was coming to Tampa so they wanted to see what the fuss was about.
“I was excited to catch the motorcade,” said Kathy, who lives seven miles away from UT. “I’m not really a supporter, especially of his border control.”
Katherine, a “’snowbird” from Rhode Island, disagreed with her friend. “I like Biden a lot. I wanted to show support and see him since he was coming here,” she said.
Jay DeNuzzia, an engineering student from New York “but not at UT,” said Biden “is doing a lot for the country and we’re going to see a lot getting done from all those bills that got passed” since he assumed office in 2021.
But he wasn’t sticking around after seeing the motorcade. “I’m going to the beach,” he said.
Un-Permitted Carry an Issue
Karla Stevens, of Tampa, was the one person holding a sign on campus during Biden’s visit. It said “Mo-Joe Not Mo-Ron” with the first two words in blue and the last in red.
“It means more Joe Biden and less Ron DeSantis,” she clarified repeatedly for passersby who asked. She hoped the president inside Plant Hall was talking about gun violence and about his proposal to ban semi-automatic firearms with high-capacity magazines.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders in the State Legislature are supporting a bill legalizing “un-permitted carry,” Stevens said.
More than 3,100 concealed weapons permit applicants were rejected by the state in 2022 for mental health issues, domestic violence convictions, and failing to complete the currently required education program, she said.
“Now we’re just going to give them guns,” she added.
With a winnowing crowd and the sun bearing down as Biden spoke in Plant Hall, Stevens said she didn’t expect to be the only one carrying a sign on campus.
“I’m very disappointed that there are not more people out here to thank him for all that he has done. He has accomplished more in two years than any president in decades,” she said.
On The Street
There were a few signs, five to be exact, with four on one side of West Kennedy Boulevard’s intersection with UT University Drive, constituting the entirety of the protest against Biden’s visit.
Tom Jones—“Don’t ask me to sing a song. That’s the other guy”—of Clearwater was standing alone on one corner with a sign that said, “Biden has Dementia.”
“I am hearing impaired after working 30 years in a steel mill. I can hear a bit” but it becomes a blur when there is another noise, he said.
Jones deftly answered unasked questions about being a member of “The Trump Squad,” which demonstrates often in front of the Pinellas County Courthouse in Clearwater often. As many as 25 people show up for weekend rallies, down from 60 a year or so ago, he said.
“The Trump Squad” also stands outside Mar-A-Lago on Valentine’s Day and June 14, Trump’s birthday. “He stopped one time to thank us once,” Jones said.
“I go out by myself sometimes and get attacked, ambushed,” he said, recalling how he’s had his car dented in shopping center parking lots and people have “jumped on from me from behind dumpsters.”
He has a concealed carry permit, Jones said, and one time, “I pulled [his firearm] on a guy—a big guy, must have been 6-foot-2—who blocked me and wouldn’t let me out” of a parking lot.
Jones said he wasn’t carrying this day. He could hear the honks from passing cars where drivers apparently agreed that Biden has dementia.
On the other corner, Sherri Southwell, of Apollo Beach, said there wasn’t more of an anti-Biden presence because few knew he was coming.
She called Biden “the Liar-in-Chief” and said she and her fellow three demonstrators were on the street corner “to let Biden know that his policies are literally killing us.”
Southwell said Biden’s victims include “service members, millions of COVID deaths because of his [vaccine] mandates, and fentanyl deaths” because he’s not protecting the border while “rolling out the red carpet of health care for people who shouldn’t even be here.”
Josie Fickey, president of the Hillsborough County Committee of the Constitutional Party of the United States, “a super PAC” fighting against a political system that is “one beast, two heads” was there to educate people that, “You have a third choice.”
She said Biden is violating the Constitution with pretty much all of his policies and that the governors of states that allowed the Chinese spy balloon to traverse also violated the Constitution—the 6th Amendment—when they didn’t shoot it down.
Fickey was also there “to protest [Biden’s] border policies” and against “students getting free handouts” claiming somewhere on UT across the street there are students in a “do-nothing class” where they get credit to literally, do nothing.
In The Grove
In a nearby palmetto grove along the Hillsborough River on campus, students in hammocks were dozing in the sun-speckled shade as others tossed a football around on a field and a small, single-mast sailboat drifted by, waiting for a wind.
Tommy “K,” who didn’t want to give his last name, had an open geometry textbook on in chest as he lay in his hammock. He’d never heard of the “do-nothing class” and with what UT charges for tuition, didn’t know anyone would sign up for such a thing, he said.
A breeze rustled through the grove and the trees and hammocks swayed in unison. On the river, the floating boat’s sails snapped and caught the wind, and headed toward Tampa Bay.
Tommy “K” laid back and yawned, glancing at the West Kennedy Bridge upriver, “I guess I’ll be able to see the motorcade when it leaves right from here.”
