A conservative activist and white nationalist speaker sparked controversy when he showed up Iowa State University's campus Wednesday night.

According to the Iowa State Daily, Nick Fuentes appeared at Iowa State's East Hall and said he was invited by Turning Point USA — which has an Iowa State chapter — as well ISU's College Republicans organization, Fuentes said.

Turning Point USA, which has no official affiliation with the university, claims partial responsibility, but the College Republicans deny having invited Fuentes.

When Fuentes arrived on campus, Iowa State University police officers, who were there to enforce the university's commitment to free speech while maintaining safety and order on campus, questioned him about the invitation he said he received. Though Fuentes claimed that a university-associated individual reserved a room for him to speak in, he could not name the individual and officers would not allow him to speak in the room without sponsorship from a university group.

Fuentes then moved out to a campus public forum area near a landmark called The Tree of Oppression, where over 50 students watched him speak, according to the Iowa State Daily.

The subject of the speech concerned the dangers of immigration and reportedly spoke of preserving the "European texture" of the United States while taking jabs at the intelligence, civilization and self-control of various marginalized groups.

At one point, according to the Iowa State Daily, Fuentes got into a confrontation with Ames leftist activist Javier Miranda. As ISU police escorted Fuentes away from the crowd to await a car, Fuentes pointed to Miranda's yarmulke and said "you know what I was going to call you," according to Miranda.

Alexis Holmes, an ISU student majoring in business management on sabbatical but still involved with the university's Black Student Alliance, attended the event. She and others were curious about Fuentes after buzz built up in the days preceding his visit and initially spoke with students gathered in East Hall before following him outside.

Holmes felt that Fuentes "carried himself with an insincere arrogance" and said his speech "definitely carried a sugar-coated message of supremacy."

She also said that, after speaking with members of the College Republicans group, she believed it was clear many of them had open disdain and disapproved of Fuentes' message.

After the event, the College Republicans released a statement in which they claimed they had "nothing to do" with Fuentes and "lies, slanderous attacks and genuine miscommunication" were responsible for claims that they had helped organize the Fuentes visit. They also claimed they believed the speaker was approved by Turning Point USA and were "misled" about the nature of his beliefs.

Anthony Labruna of the ISU College Republicans said in the statement that "everything (Fuentes) said last night were views that are not held by the Republican Party."

Fuentes responded to the statement saying "College Republicans at ISU who invited me to speak, knowing full well my views, bailed on my event last night and are now attempting to distance themselves from me because they're getting heat from the campus paper. What a disgraceful display of cowardice, you ought to be ashamed."

When reached for comment, Sara Petersen, the listed head of Turning Point USA's Iowa State University chapter said that, though she hadn't announced it yet, she was "planning on stepping down as president, and disaffiliating myself with the organization as a whole, due to recent events."

"I will never support someone like Fuentes coming to campus to speak," Petersen said in a statement. "That is not what I signed up for when I agreed to be president. I am disappointed with Turning Point organizing this event — and putting the responsibility on myself — without my permission. Due to all of this, I will no longer be president of Turning Point USA at Iowa State, and will no longer affiliate myself with the organization."

Petersen claims to have originally signed up for Turning Point to learn more about fiscal responsibility, but that the organization was only focused on becoming an official campus organization.

"To those who were affected by this event — I stand with you," she went on to say. "I share in your disappointment and frustration of the event being organized and followed through. I will be working hard to ensure that the campus of Iowa State University is a safe and welcoming environment."

In a video posted to Fuentes' America First YouTube channel after the ISU visit, he claimed that the visit had been in the works since Fall 2018.

Desiring minimal attention from adversarial political forces and the press, Fuentes claims that he sought to hold a private event at a regular College Republicans meeting with just members of that group and Turning Point USA. According to Fuentes, a defecting member of the College Republicans alerted the Iowa State Daily, which prompted the school paper to publicize his visit.

In the video, Fuentes went on to claim that the resulting publicity caused Turning Point USA and the ISU College Republicans to back out. Though some members of those organizations still supported him, he accused the leaders of those organizations of "p----ing out" and leaving him out to dry.

Fuentes went on to call Emily Berch, the author of the Iowa State Daily's coverage of his visit, a "scumbag and a liar."

This isn't the first instance of white supremacist or anti-immigration controversy has erupted at ISU. In October 2016, campus police investigated the appearance of racist posters that had appeared on campus. In November, before the midterm elections, messages saying "it's okay to be white" and urging people to vote for Iowa house representative Steve King appeared.

Earlier this week, chat logs were leaked from Identity Evropa, a college-focused hate group that was prominent at the same 2017 Charlottesville rally that Fuentes attended and has been associated with. This leak revealed that an activist with ties to IE had put up posters for the group around different areas of the central and western areas of the ISU campus this past December.

This same leak revealed chat logs that activists associated with IE worked to help reelect Steve King during the 2018 midterms after he gained attention for claiming to find nothing wrong with the term "white supremacist."

"The university condemns racism and bigotry," ISU's Director of News Service Annette Hacker said in a statement. "As a public institution, the university cannot and does not restrict free speech. Yet, we recognize the pain caused by hateful and bigoted speech – even when that speech is protected by the Constitution. Accordingly, Iowa State encourages students, faculty and staff to use their own free speech rights to respond to, combat, and shine a light on speech they find offensive and hateful."

In response to a report published last year that found one-third of students at ISU responding to a survey considered leaving because of harassment, the University has introduced a series of "campus climate initiatives" to encourage diversity and inclusion.

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League shows that white supremacist groups increased their promotional efforts on college campuses 182 percent in 2018.

Requests for statements from the Iowa State University College Republicans and Nick Fuentes were not returned before this article was published.

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