A history professor who claims he was targeted by the conservative group founded by the late MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk says he was alarmed Thursday after his flight was suddenly "cancelled," adding, "I don't think it's a coincidence."
Dr. Mark Bray, a Rutgers University professor and author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” was leaving the U.S. at Newark Liberty International Airport for Spain on Wednesday night, just hours after President Donald Trump had announced a crackdown on "left-wing" groups during a roundtable, Salon reports.
“'Someone' cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second. We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared,'" Bray wrote on Bluesky.
“I may sound conspiratorial, but I don’t think it is a coincidence,” he told The New York Times, adding that the airline had booked a new flight for Thursday night. “We’re at a hotel and we’re just going to try again.”
Bray said he has received multiple death threats in the wake of Kirk's killing and planned to move his family. He says Rutgers did not provide security for him following the threats. He said he told both campus and local police, but decided it would ultimately be safer to leave and relocate with his two young children and wife, another Rutgers professor.
He plans to teach via Zoom and told his students earlier this week. Bray plans to stay in Spain for the academic year.
“My role in this is as a professor,” Bray told The Times on Wednesday, just hours before leaving for his scheduled flight. “I’ve never been part of an antifa group, and I’m not currently. There’s an effort underway to paint me as someone who is doing the things that I’ve researched, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”