Beto O�Rourke�s presidential campaign said Wednesday that it ejected a Breitbart News reporter from an event at a South Carolina college because it wanted to ensure that students felt �comfortable and safe.�

The Texas Democrat�s campaign found itself in a public confrontation with the aggressive conservative web site a day after its senior editor-at-large, Joel Pollak, said he was booted from an O�Rourke speech. He said the campaign told him was being ejected because he�d been disruptive at past events.

O�Rourke spokeswoman Aleigha Cavalier said that Breitbart walks the line between being news and a perpetrator of hate speech. The campaign asked him to leave because of Pollak�s �previous hateful reporting� and the sensitivity of the topics being discussed with black students at Benedict College.

�Whether it�s dedicating an entire section of their website to �black crime,� inferring that immigrants are terrorists, or using derogatory terms to refer to LGBTQ people, Breitbart News walks the line between being news and a perpetrator of hate speech,� Cavalier said in a statement.

Cavalier did not immediately outline what work from Pollak the campaign had found objectionable or whether this was a one-time action that would apply to Breitbart personnel in the future.

During a question-and-answer session with the press earlier this week, Pollak accused O�Rourke of misquoting remarks made by Trump following the Charlottesville, Virginia, demonstration by white supremacists.

The dust-up gave a shot of attention to Breitbart, which has plummeted in readership and influence from its apex, when former editor Stephen Bannon was a top aide to President Donald Trump.

Saying that Breitbart or Pollak, an Orthodox Jew who is married to a black woman, are racist is absurd, said Elizabeth Moore, spokeswoman for Breitbart News.

�The irony of Mr. O�Rourke, who has stated that he is the beneficiary of �white privilege,� purporting to decide for black students who should be banned from events that are open to the press, or what they should feel, is not lost on us,� Moore said.

(AP)