The widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has said the Turning Point USA organization he founded will help elect JD Vance as president in 2028, despite the current US vice president having yet to announce his candidacy.
Erika Kirk’s endorsement came Thursday on the opening day of Turning Point’s annual America Fest conference, the organization’s largest gathering since her husband was shot and killed in September.
“We’re going to make sure my husband’s friend, J.D. Vance, is elected to the 48th president in the most convincing way possible,” Kirk said, referring to the 48th president. Trump is the 47th.
Vance, meanwhile, will speak at the event on Sunday.
Turning Point is credited with helping Republican President Donald Trump expand his coalition of support, leading to his victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Her announcement just before Trump’s one-year term in office signals an early desire to become his successor ahead of the 2028 elections.
After Kirk delivered her opening statement, the stage at the Phoenix Convention Center in Arizona turned into a political mud fight as tensions within the conservative movement were laid bare.
Podcaster Ben Shapiro launched attacks on media rivals Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon, calling them “frauds and con artists.”
“The people who refused to condemn Candace’s truly brutal attacks — and some of them are speaking here tonight — are guilty of cowardice,” Shapiro said.
Owens, a former Turning Point employee who hosts a popular podcast, has been a thorn in the side of Republicans and has advanced several conspiracy theories, including baseless suggestions about the murder of Charlie Kirk.
It comes at a time of mounting speculation about Trump’s hold on the Republican Party and a power struggle between factions of the president’s supporters over the future of the Maga movement.
Shapiro also criticized former Fox News host Carlson for interviewing Nick Fuentes, a far-right political commentator Holocaust denieron his podcast in late October, which drew widespread condemnation.
After Shapiro, Carlson took the stage and fired back at Shapiro.
“That guy is pompous,” Carlson said. “Calls to deplatform during a Charlie Kirk event? That’s hilarious.”
Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point events were known for controversial and divisive topics. Supporters saw it as necessary for freedom of expression. Critics saw it as hate speech.
Authorities said Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, told his romantic partner that he killed Kirk because he had “had enough of his hatred.”
Erika Kirk told the Turning Point conference, “You won’t agree with everyone on this stage this weekend. And that’s okay. Welcome to America.”
Since the killing, she said, “we’ve seen fractures, we’ve seen bridges burned that shouldn’t be burned.”
Trump has recently faced a series of setbacks within his Republican party, including a public feud with his former ally Marjorie Taylor Greene and the impending release of the Epstein files, which a majority of Republicans voted for despite Trump’s initial discouragement.
The four-day America Fest conference was scheduled to continue all weekend, with Vance and Donald Trump Jr. as guest speakers on Sundays.
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