Far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, which targets college students in an effort to mobilize a young conservative base.
Kirk has frequently spread conservative disinformation, including the right-wing delusion that the 2020 election was somehow "stolen" by Democrats engaging in widespread election fraud. He even funded nearly 100 buses to charter people to the January 6 "Save America" rally, which later devolved into the deadly failed insurrection against the United States Capitol.
As the insurrection proved, the lie that the election was stolen can mobilize people to violence. That was proven yet again with a question posed to Kirk during a recent speaking engagement.
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One attendee asked Kirk:
"This is tyranny. When do we get to use the guns? That's not a joke, I'm not saying it like that, I mean literally where's the line? How many elections are they gonna steal before we kill these people?"
The conservative audience met the question with applause and agreement.
Kirk denounced the question, but not because violence shouldn't be tolerated, but because violence would supposedly help Democrats:
"I'm gonna denounce that, and I'm gonna tell you why. Because you're playing into all their plans ... They are trying to provoke you and everyone here. They are trying to make you do something that will be violent, that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties the likes of which we have never seen. ... We are close to have momentum to be able to put this country back on a trajectory using the peaceful means that we have at us."
The question generated outrage online.
Kirk's halfhearted denouncement wasn't well-received either.
Because, as others pointed out, Kirk and right-wing figures like him are mobilizing Americans to violence in the first place.
Kirk and his ilk continue to travel the country peddling dangerous lies.
