American-born Mongolian activist attacks conservative influencers over Islam at U Michigan

Cam Higby identified the student as Temulun Togochog, an American born to Mongolian parents who fled China and the Chinese Communist Party. Togochog’s father is a human rights activist and director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. She has since made her Instagram profile private.

Togochog, wearing a skin-tight T-shirt and leggings, was filmed screaming at the men behind the table, clapping her hands in the face of conservative commentator Joe Redden and slapping him. Her argument presumably was that Islam is compatible with the West, but she didn’t actually offer any points in favor of that position.

She leaned over the table, clapping in a man’s face, shouting “I asked you what f*cking, no, ‘cause this is f*cking stupid, bro.” Then she demanded to know where their permit was and as people called her out, she claimed the man she confronted was “victimizing himself as a fully grown man.”

“I didn’t f*cking do sh*t,” she said.

“I have it on camera,” said Meghan Elinor, who was filming the interaction for Freedom & Whiskey.

“F*cking anti-Muslim people here who wanna say I put a f*cking hand on him, bro,” the crazed student said, confronting everyone around her.

“She couldn’t go in public in Iran,” said a man off camera.

“She’d have to cover up,” said Liz Benichou, a conservative influencer.

“You’ve got too much skin showing to be in Iran,” said the man.

“What are you even f*cking talking about,” she said.

Benichou sought back up from Redden, who confirmed what she’d said. The student then shoved Benichou to the ground. She was quickly arrested, cuffed amid a struggle, and taken away.

“I’d do it again every f*cking time you stupid f*cking c*nt,” she shouted as she was led to a waiting squad car, flanked by cops. “I should have f*cking killed you when I had the f*cking chance."

Officers said that they had been on campus responding to an unpermitted event and witnessed the attack. “As the group was packing up to leave,” police said, “officers witnessed a University of Michigan student assault a woman not affiliated with the university. The student was taken into custody, processed, and released pending warrant authorization. No injuries were reported.”

Cam Higby shared a call with the police in Ann Arbor, revealing that the attack was “just a misdemeanor” and that the student had been released. “So no, she is not still in custody,” the officer said over the phone, noting that “the offense is just a misdemeanor” and that she was not “lodged on that charge.”

As she was arrested, onlookers called out to her that she should go to a mental hospital. She said that she’d been to one and she’d go again. Higby shared a video she had posted revealing her medications, which show her name, Temulun Togochog.

Temulun Togochog spoke to Congress in 2024 about growing up without ever being able to see her homeland. She was born in New York to parents in exile. She told Congress she felt “privileged to have grown up in the United States, a free and democratic country where I can learn my language, practice my traditions and express my opinions without fear.”

More recently, Togochog spoke at the IRF Summit in 2026 about her experience growing up with parents in exile and her advocacy for Inner Mongolia, where her parents are from. She has spoken at the UN, the Asia Freedom Institute, the United States Institute for Peace, and at the International Religious Freedom panel on Capitol Hill.

Benichou later put out a statement from Liberty Under Fire. “Today, I was physically assaulted simply for showing up and exercising my First Amendment rights. Political violence has NO place in the United States of America. I am incredibly grateful to the law enforcement officers who acted immediately to protect me. I am now in a safe location receiving care, and I am going to be okay. If the intention was to intimidate or silence me, it will not work.”

Author and commentator Xi Van Fleet, who also escaped communist China, called out the American university system, saying “It is clear that higher education has been the breeding ground for radicalism, producing generations of anti-American revolutionaries—including children of immigrants like Kamala, Omar, Mamdani, El-Sayed, and others. To save America, we must dismantle and rebuild our universities from the ground up.”

Michigan is the site of a contentious Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed, who advocates for Islam, refuses to condemn Hamas or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and has supported anti-semitic ads run in support of his campaign.