Audience members at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Memphis cheered after Kyle Rittenhouse fled the stage after a confrontation over the racism of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, the organization's founder.
Rittenhouse has remained a darling among the right since he was acquitted of all charges relating to the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz during the 2020 Kenosha unrest, which was sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by a white police officer.
The event took a turn after a student asked Rittenhouse about Kirk's history of making racist statements but Rittenhouse pushed back, saying that "we're gonna have a little bit of a dialogue of what racist things that Charlie Kirk said."
The student replied:
"He says that we shouldn't celebrate Juneteenth, we shouldn't celebrate Martin Luther King day—we should be working those days—he called Ketanji Brown Jackson an affirmative action hire, he said all this nonsense about George Floyd, and he said he'd be scared if a Black pilot was on a plane. Does that not seem racist?"
Audience members jeered after Rittenhouse said he didn't "know anything about that," prompting one attendee to yell out that the student had asked a simple "yes or no question."
The student pressed Rittenhouse again:
"Well, after all the things I just told you, would you consider that hate speech?"
Rittenhouse replied, "I'm not gonna comment on that," before an organizer ushered him off the stage to boos from the audience.
You can watch what happened in the videos below.
The student's question came after Kirk stirred controversy in January after saying, "If I see a Black pilot, I'm gonna be like 'boy, I hope he is qualified.'" Facing criticism, he claimed that's "not what I believe," attributing his reaction to concerns over policies implemented by major companies regarding ethnic minorities. He expressed apprehensions that these policies might lead to less-qualified individuals being appointed to positions of significant responsibility, such as airline pilots.
Shortly afterward, Kirk criticized what he referred to as the "myth" surrounding revered civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King. Kirk suggested there have been efforts to sanitize King's image because when he was alive, "most people disliked him, yet today he is the most honored, worshipped, even deified person of the 20th century."
Notably, Kirk has also expressed strong opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, describing its enactment as a "huge mistake." He has criticized it for allegedly establishing a "permanent DEI-type bureaucracy." Kirk has suggested that the Act's ultimate objective is to "re-found the [United States]," with the intention of abolishing the First Amendment.
The evidence speaks for itself—and Rittenhouse's reaction said a lot about the company he keeps.
He was swiftly called out.
Disputing the timeline presented by the media, Rittenhouse shared a positive review of his experience and said he finds it "funny that a lot of the media is saying we got booed offstage."
Despite the video evidence of him dodging the student's questions, Rittenhouse claimed he'd merely adhered to his scheduled time and said the audience was "interesting."
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter