Days after the University of California – Berkeley first announced that they were canceling a speech by conservative provocateur Ann Coulter, along with Coulter rejecting their offer of a new date and planning to show up as originally scheduled, the issue is still a big topic on cable news.

On this evening’s broadcast of Fox News’ The Five, the four conservative co-hosts ended up taking turns tearing into the college, students, liberals, and the Democratic Party for blocking Coulter’s free speech. Greg Gutfeld, for example, decried it as “sharia law for snowflakes.”

Eventually, the one panelist who is supposed to represent the left — Bob Beckel — weighed in, and he ended up clashing with his fellow co-hosts over Coulter herself. After first chastising the others for blaming Democrats for these issues over conservative campus speakers, claiming anarchists are largely responsible for the protests — and calling Howard Dean an anarchist himself — Beckel then said he was for Coulter’s right to free speech.

“The reason I am for Ann Coulter speaking is because she has a right to speak and every time she opens her mouth, it drives away more people,” Beckel stated. “She is becoming more and more irrelevant.”

After Beckel highlighted some of the more inflammatory things she’s said in recent years, and Gutfeld made an Animal House reference, the left-leaning co-host tossed out a pretty harsh observation about Coulter.

“Ann Coulter is the dead horse in the dean’s office,” he snarked. This segued into Beckel ranting about Coulter personally attacking him in the past, leading to Gutfeld wondering what point he was trying to make.

Whereas Bob pretended to be a freedom rider. @Mediaite The Five’s Bob Beckel: Bill O’Reilly Doesn’t Know Anything About The Black Community — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 25, 2013

Once the segment predictably broke down and co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle said she needed to get it back in order because the “wheels came off the Bob bus,” Beckel got in one last shot on Coulter.

“I have a right to say what I think and I think she is an idiot and I think she should speak and drive more people away,” Beckel exclaimed.

Recently, liberal heroes Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have spoken out against Berkeley protesters, stating that Coulter has a right to speak.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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