Far-right pundit Charlie Kirk was left furious during a recent visit to a college campus after being asked the most obvious question possible.
Kirk is the founder of the far-right Turning Point USA, an organization that aims to indoctrinate college students into far-right propaganda.
He runs a watchlist of college professors he deems as "discriminating" against conservative students, has written extensively about what he calls the "racist lie" of white privilege and is obsessed with trans people, all of which have made him a Republican darling.
His preferred from of online content is going to campuses and inviting students to debate him, and suffice to say one of his recent trips didn't go quite as planned.
A student asked Kirk several questions about immigration and birthright citizenship before pivoting to a final question his dad asked him to pose.
""I have one more question my dad wanted me to ask you. He said, 'Would you still be a white supremacist if you were in a more diverse work field?'"
Kirk has openly courted and become a hero to white nationalist groups all over the country, has trafficked in conspiracy theories like QAnon that often take on white nationalist overtones, and has elevated organizations like the John Birch Society that are explicitly rooted in white supremacy.
He has also gone viral for saying he thinks Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was "not a good person" and that he doesn't trust Black airline pilots.
But, like many far-right ideologues, Kirk is often very careful to speak in ways that offer plausible deniability of him holding any overtly racist views, which is the tack he tried to take with the college student.
He turned the question back on the student, replying:
"So do you think I'm a white supremacist?"
The student said he didn't know, but his dad had watched a lot of Kirk's content and felt his stance was clear. He then restated the question for Kirk, who quickly became visibly rattled.
Talking over the student as he defended his father, Kirk spat:
"I'm not even gonna justify— You should be ashamed of your father..."
"...Your father peddles lies. I'm not a white supremacist."
Triggered, snowflake? The ideologue doth protest too much, methinks.
As you might guess, the internet was not particularly convinced by Kirk's performance.
Better luck next time, Charlie.
