Andy Ngo forced to hold Virginia event in secret location amid Antifa cancel campaign

Andy Ngo was scheduled to speak at an event organized by The Virginia Council and Common Sense Society at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, Virginia on September 22, but the venue recently backed out, deciding not to host him and a slate of other speakers.

The event will go on as planned at a new location, however to prevent Antifa activists from shutting it down, Ngo has announced that he will only divulge the details to ticket holders closer to the 22nd.

An article posted on the popular far-left website RVA Mag earlier this month, which has since been unpublished, called out the Commonwealth Club by name, asking why it was providing a platform for "right wing terror enthusiasts."

The venue emailed RVA Mag soon after to inform them that Ngo would no longer be speaking there, adding that the decision had been made before the activists wrote their piece.

The Commonwealth Club claimed that it was "not made aware of who the speaker would be" when first contacted, and once they were informed, "the board and the leadership at the Club made the executive decision to cancel this event, as the actions and values that Andy Ngo speaks about do not represent the Club's values."

One of the other speakers slated to take part in the event is John Reid, founding chairman of The Virginia Council. In an interview with local radio host Jeff Katz, Reid countered the claims made by the Commonwealth Club, stating that he had made the call to move the event to a "larger venue" outside the city of Richmond. He cited threats by Antifa, but did not specify to what extent they had played a role in his decision. 

The new venue will be somewhere in nearby Henrico County.

Reid issued a statement on the matter to The Post Millenial, which read: 

“The Virginia Council was founded in 2021 to preserve Virginia’s history and promote prosperity and the rule of law in the face of violence and destruction by groups like Antifa. We were not intimidated in 2021, and we will not be intimidated now. Good things are worth standing up for. Free speech, the rule of law, truth—these things will prevail over bullying, slander, and intimidation. Andy Ngo was courageous in Portland, and we will be courageous in Richmond. We look forward to an engaging—and clearly very necessary—discussion with him on Friday. And we look forward to partnering with principled Virginians in the months and years to come to advance prosperity in the Commonwealth.”

Meanwhile, the Common Sense Society, the event's co-organizer, gave the following statement: 

“Andy Ngo has shown courage and resolve in the face of slander and opposition, promoting liberty and exposing hypocrisy despite threats to his physical safety. It is ironic that our original location for Friday’s Virginia Forum, The Commonwealth Club, is painting Andy as “problematic” when they only backed out of the event once the truly problematic and disruptive group Antifa applied pressure online. We stand by our friend and guest speaker Andy. We will not fold under Antifa’s threats."

After it was announced that the new location had been made private, Antifa members began trying to find it.

"If anyone has any idea where the event with Andy Ngo is going to be held at, my DMs are open," notorious organizer Kristopher Goad announced to his followers on X.

Goad has a history of putting independent journalists in "extreme danger."