I am back after a trip to Virginia Tech where I had the honor of speaking to a packed crowd of students as part of Turning Point USA’s ongoing campus tour. I was supposed to be there with Charlie, and his absence was felt acutely.
After he was killed, I had no idea whether Turning Point would go forward with the event. I assumed that they wouldn’t. But when Erika Kirk announced, 48 hours after Charlie died, that they were not stopping one thing, I stood up and cheered. I was so inspired by her. And of course, there was no hesitation to go forward with it.
An Act of Courage
But as I said to the students in attendance last night: It was an act of courage for them to show up because these are kids on a college campus and, unfortunately, that is where the violence against Charlie took place. And there are too many people that age who are turning dangerous these days.
So, for them to show up in an environment where they know it is politically charged and where someone was assassinated two weeks beforehand at an event that has his organization’s name on it and that this one did, too, is an act of courage by these students. And yet, show up they did. Here is a video of the line to get in posted by TPUSA on X:
I don’t know the total headcount, but there were definitely thousands of people there last night. The auditorium was jam packed. It was standing room only.
I got to spend time with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin beforehand. What a charming man and great guy. He has a very bright political future, if he ever wants to seek national office. He would have to follow J.D. Vance, but, after that, he would be amazing.
He led us in prayer backstage before we went out (that’s a picture of us above), and his words really meant something to me. They actually made me feel a lot better.
The Q&A
After I spoke for a few minutes, there was a Q&A. It was very cordial. It was very cool. It was great to get out there and actually talk to these young people and see what’s on their minds.
There were some very, very smart questions, some were interesting in a different way, and there is one exchange that is getting attention today. You can watch the full event below, but the question came at the 1 hour, 45 minute-mark. As you will see, one young man came, as they say, loaded for bear.
His initial question was: “I want to know why you support a president who contributes to the rhetoric that got your friend Charlie killed? You saw his rally recently, he said, ‘I hate my enemies.’ Stephen Miller said similar things. How can you support him when he contributed to what got Charlie killed?”
He went on to claim that “70 percent of political violence is committed by Republicans” and wanted to know if it is “okay for the sitting President of the United States to incite violence against liberals.”
Here’s how I responded, in part: “The president of the United States has not accepted violence against liberals. The president of the United States made a joke at the Charlie Kirk Memorial, which was funny and self-deprecating. It was on the heels of Erica Kirk saying she, in an extraordinary moment, forgave her husband’s killer… And then President Trump got up and making a joke, playing off of what Erika said, he said, ‘We disagree. I need to do better. Erika’s gonna try to convince me, but I’m in a different place.’ And that’s completely normal for a politician to be thinking about his political fights. And by the way, Trump has every right to loathe his enemies. They tried to put him in jail for the rest of his life. They tried to bankrupt him. They tried to put his family in jail. They tried to kill him.”
Our exchange ended there, and I would say that thinking is not exactly this young man’s fault. He is most likely consuming leftist media and that is clearly what has infected this guy’s mind. I spoke about that today on The Megyn Kelly Show with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson:
‘Get Out There!’
Anyway, thank you to all the students who were there. It was mentioned at Charlie’s funeral that he used to say courage is actually easy – all you have to do is say yes. Just say yes, and then do the thing. And that’s what these students did last night.
I am honored they turned out. I am honored Turning Point went forward with it and wanted me to appear. I spoke with Erika Kirk about it via text, and she wanted me to tell them how proud she was of them and how Turning Point will have their back. I mean, she is thinking about them and feeling proud of these students who are turning out at these events.
I think it is one of the few things that is making her feel a little better in these terrible days that she is going through. So, keep that in mind when you sign up for these things – and get out there!
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,157 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.