David French

David Austin French (born January 24, 1969) is an American political commentator and former attorney. He has had high profile religious liberty cases French worked for National Review. French was once President of a group called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. French defended an Arab University Professor who was fired for saying "Death to Israel" on the grounds that hatred of Israel was not a good enough reason to fire someone. Then a woman named Bari Weiss made a documentary called Columbia Unbecoming accusing several professors at Columbia University of anti-Semitism. The New York Civil Liberties Union accused Weiss of being opposed to allowing Professors to have their rights to their own opinions saying that a student should only challenge a professor's opinion if the professor allows them to. Weiss then wrote to David French, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education asking if this was true. French came to Weiss's defence saying that Professors were allowed to have their opinions about Israel, and that Weiss wasn't saying they couldn't, but just that students were also allowed to have their own opinions about it. While professors could choose what they wanted to talk about, students did not need their professors' permission to disagree with them. Though Bari Weiss had said she was angry about every Columbia Professor in the Middle East department being against Israel, she wasn't saying that they should be fired for it, only that Columbia should at least hire some teachers who were pro-Israel. She was also not telling the government that they should force Columbia to hire pro-Israel professors, just that Columbia should hire some pro-Israel professors.

French is a religious Christian and a Republican. French is Pro-Life and supported George W. Bush during his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006, French joined the US Army and fought in Iraq as an American soldier. After coming back to the US he became the lawyer for the National Review Institute and would also sometimes write for the National Review.

In 2016, David French said that he didn't want Donald Trump to be the Republican candidate for President but that if he was, he'd vote for him. Also in 2016, people on the Alt-Right said that French was a traitor to his race because he had adopted a black daughter. When Trump became the Republican candidate, French said that he had changed his mind and wouldn't vote for him because he wasn't critical enough of the Alt-Right. People on the Alt-Right then tweeted pictures of David French's daughter in a gas chamber. After Trump won, French supported the effort to investigate Trump to see if he had been working with the Russian government to get himself elected. After the investigation was over, French said it seemed very unlikely that Trump had actually done it.

French also complained about how often newspapers and television said people had been "credibly accused" of rape saying that most of the people who worked for Trump had been accused of rape without any evidence but that the media insisted that they'd been credibly accused. French also criticized the newspaper, The Atlantic for firing Kevin Williamson, saying he was fired for being a conservative. French also criticized people for saying or implying that Ben Shapiro was Alt-Right. French also complained about people saying that Shapiro was racist on the grounds that people who hated Shapiro took things that he had said and apologised for to prove that he was racist when actually reading or watching Shapiro's books and videos would make it clear that he wasn't. French also criticized Glenn Greenwald for saying that Bari Weiss had devoted her life to trying to get professors who criticized Israel fired, saying that he knew Greenwald's statement wasn't true because he was there. French also praised Jordan Peterson saying that Peterson's book helped a lot of people realise how important the Bible was. French also said that YouTube shouldn't have stopped Steven Crowder from making money from his YouTube videos but that the government shouldn't stop them from being able to make that choice. French said that Prager University did a lot of good work but he criticized Dennis Prager for being too pro-Trump. French said that he liked Trump's Pro-Life laws but that he believed George W. Bush did more for the Pro-Life movement. French supported Trump's decision to kill Iran's General Qassam Solemeini saying that Solemeini was an acceptable military target that it was not, in fact, an assassination, under the law's definition.

An essay by a conservative named Sohrab Ahmari called Against David Frenchism accused David French of being a RINO (Republican in Name Only). When asked on Twitter what the most controversial opinion he had was, French said it was that superhero movies based on DC Comics were better than those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In 2024, French said he would vote for Kamala Harris to be President of the United States to “save Conservatism from itself”. 

References

Category:1969 births
Category:Living people
Category:Lawyers from Alabama
Category:Political commentators