Students at the College of William & Mary, the second-oldest university in the United States, are launching a Turning Point USA chapter despite social media backlash and pushback from peers.
Olivia Keller, a sophomore at William and Mary, told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that the school administration has been supportive, but her peers haven’t been.
Most of the resistance has been on social media app YikYak, because she thinks students are more comfortable attacking the club behind a screen rather than face-to-face.
Grace Keller, second from right, with William and Mary TPUSA members. (Photo courtesy: Kevin Lincoln)
“There has been a lot of discussion on that platform among students,” Keller said. “So they’ve been pretty opposed to our efforts with this new club. They’ve made comments about the exec members on the club, they’ve made fun of it when Charlie Kirk was assassinated. They were saying, ‘Oh, we haven’t heard a racist comment in a while that’s awesome.’ So it’s just some really, really inappropriate stuff on there. But in person I haven’t really had any kind of interaction that was as bad as online, as I mean it’s face-to-face versus online, so like they’re definitely more scared to say something in person.”
The 20-year-old student told Fox News Digital that she reached out to campus security after learning that other students planned to protest the group’s Oct. 20 informational meeting.
“When that was brought to my attention, I had never dealt with a protest before. I wasn’t sure how big it was going to be, how many people would actually show up, or how disruptive they would be,” Keller said. “So I did feel the need to get security outside of our meeting. And the faculty and staff were really easy to communicate with to get those security guards outside.”
Keller, who is a marketing major, said she has noticed a drastic decrease in her friends following her on social media platforms like Instagram after posting about Kirk’s assassination.
The 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA was assassinated on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University during his “American Comeback Tour.”
An attendee holds up a sign reading “Never Surrender” ahead of the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025, in Glendale, Arizona. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Keller claimed that about 200 friends on Instagram unfollowed her after she posted a “rest in peace” tribute to Kirk after his assassination, and that more unfollowed her Monday when she shared a post for Veterans Day.
Keller said she thinks conservative students tend to face a tougher environment on campus as opposed to their liberal peers.
“Even the College Republicans, they face a lot of backlash, and they’re pretty loud about their beliefs,” Keller said. “When Trump was elected the previous year, they were wearing the MAGA hats and stuff, and so they were commented on a lot, like there were a lot of disagreements.”
Charlie Kirk speaks before he is assassinated during Turning Point’s visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.(Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)
Keller said she had been a “closeted conservative” but decided to speak up despite the risks.
“Me personally, I’ve been more of what I would say, a closeted conservative on campus until this year, just because I feel like if I were to speak up, I would just be, attacked or, like, basically condemned,” Keller said.
Her advice to students finding themselves in a similar position who want to start a conservative club in a left-leaning institution is to be “bold.”
Keller’s advice to students finding themselves in a similar position, who want to start a conservative club in a left-leaning institution is to be “bold.”(Godofredo Vásquez/AP)
“In today’s world, I think it’s really important to be bold about these beliefs,” Keller said. “And even if your peers disagree with you, in the long run, you’re gonna find your own community with people who have similar values and those are gonna be the more important relationships.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the College of William & Mary for comment.
Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to rachel.delguidice@fox.com.
Eric Trump called his father live on stage during a Turning Point USA event on the campus of Auburn University in Alabama. President Donald Trump then told a packed arena, “We love Charlie” and, “He’s looking down on us right now.”
The president’s son, who was co-hosting the event with his wife, Lara Trump, drew cheers on Wednesday night when he asked those in attendance, “By the way, should we see what he is doing right now? Should we try calling him?”
“Hello? Hello?” Donald Trump was heard saying on the call as Eric Trump held his phone up to a microphone, drawing a raucous applause.
“So we have the most beautiful crowd of people, thousands and thousands of people at Auburn University. They are incredibly enthusiastic, and they absolutely adore this country, they adore God, and they adore you,” Eric Trump said.
Eric Trump, right, called his father, President Donald Trump, left, during a Turning Point USA event on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, at Auburn University in Alabama.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“Well, I want to just say hello to everybody, I hope Erika is doing a good job and Lara is doing a good job. And Auburn is a special place, I’ve been there many times,” Donald Trump responded.
“I just want to pay my respects to Charlie and Erika — these are two incredible people. And Erika, I’ve spoken to her often, she is just a spectacular person, and she is going to start where Charlie left off, and we should never allow this to happen,” the president also said, referencing the Sept. 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, sits down with Fox News host Jesse Watters for her first interview since the assassination of her husband.(Fox News)
“One of the greatest people we have ever known and was so responsible for our win. And we love Charlie, he’s looking down on us right now, all of us and Erika, you just, you are there some place, and you just take care of yourself. We are with you all the way, and we are with the great people that my son and Lara are speaking to, and I love you all,” the president continued.
“As President of the United States, I love you all and our country is doing great,” Donald Trump added.
Turning Point USA said on its website that each stop of the “This is the Turning Point” tour “is a chance to honor Charlie’s mission and keep the fight alive.
Vice President JD Vance addresses a Turning Point USA audience at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2025.(Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images)
Vice President JD Vance spoke at length during a large Turning Point USA gathering at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in honor of Charlie Kirk, during which he shared the slain conservative activist’s impact on his faith and told students that “a properly rooted Christian moral order” is key to the future of the country.
After the audience heard from Kirk’s widow, Erika, Vance took the stage and spoke for a brief time before taking questions from the audience on a range of issues from immigration to National Guard deployments and the Second Amendment. But several of the questions revolved around Vance’s faith and the impact it has had on how he governs as Vice President. Some asked about his views on religious liberty while another questioned how he was raising his family in a dual-religion household where his wife is Hindu.
“I make no apologies for thinking that Christian values are an important foundation of this country,” Vance said when responding to a question about the separation of church and state. “Anybody who’s telling you their view is neutral likely has an agenda to sell you. And I’m at least honest about the fact that I think the Christian foundation of this country is a good thing.”
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a “This Is the Turning Point” campus tour event at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Meanwhile, Vance railed against contemporary liberalism in his comments about faith Wednesday night, calling it a “perverted version of Christianity.”
“There’s nothing wrong, of course, with focusing on people who are disenfranchised, for example. That’s the focus of liberalism. But if you completely separate it from any religious duty or any civic virtue, then that can actually become, for example, an inducement to lawlessness,” Vance said while responding to a questioner. “You can’t just have compassion for the criminal. You also have to have justice too. Which is why I think that a properly rooted Christian moral order is such an important part of the future of our country.”
Vance went on to say that he does not think God must be kicked out of the public square, adding he did not believe that is what the founders intended.
“Anybody who tells you it’s required by the Constitution is lying to you,” Vance argued. “What happened, is, the Supreme Court interpreted ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion’ to effectively throw the church out of every public place at the federal, state and local level. I think it was a terrible mistake, and we’re still paying for the consequences of it today.”
In addition to taking tough policy-oriented questions about faith and religion, Vance was also asked at one point about living in an interfaith household. Vance’s wife is Hindu.
Attendees listen as Vice President JD Vance speaks during a “This Is the Turning Point” campus tour event at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Vance noted how when the pair met he was not a Christian, but over time he and his wife, Usha, decided to raise their boys Christian. Vance said open communication and respect for each other’s beliefs played a part in his marriage and his family’s decision to raise their kids Christian.
“Most Sundays she will come with me to church. As I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends, ‘Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly, I do wish that.’ Because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way. But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
Vance also spoke about the impact Kirk has had on his faith during the Wednesday night event honoring the slain activist. Vance said that, at least in part, Kirk moved him to be more vocal about his faith.
Signs with a photo of Charlie Kirk are seen before Vice President JD Vance speaks at a Turning Point USA event at the Pavilion at Ole Miss at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)
“This is another way in which Charlie has affected my life – I would say that I grew up again in a generation where even if people had very deep personal faith, they didn’t talk about their faith a whole lot,” Vance told the crowd while remembering his late friend.
“But the reason why I try to be the best husband I can be, the best father I can be, the reason why I care so much about all the issues that we’re going to talk about, is because I believe I’ve been placed in this position for a brief period of time to do the most amount of good for God and for the country that I love so much. And that’s the most important way that my faith influences me.”
Vice President JD Vance spoke at a Turning Point USA event alongside CEO Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, at Ole Miss on Wednesday. CBS News correspondent Nicole Valdes has the details.
On October 29th, students, faculty and others traveled to visit the oak-lined paths, red-brick halls, and campus Lyceum at the University of Mississippi to see Vice President JD Vance at a Turning Point USA event in honor of the organization’s co-founder, Charlie Kirk, alongside his widow, Erika Kirk.
TPUSA chapter president at Ole Miss, Lesley Lachman, remarked that the university is “the forefront of what Turning Point USA chapters look like across the country.
“This really is the point in history where people are motivated and want to get involved in politics and Gen Z is fired up and ready to go,” Lachman continued.
Ole Miss, also known as the University of Mississippi, expects an immense turn out of attendees for the TPUSA event featuring JD Vance and Erika Kirk. (Fox News Digital )
“The chapter has grown so significantly that every time we hold the chapter meeting, we hit capacity and it’s a fire hazard, which has been an interesting, wonderful problem to have,” the college junior said.
Citing a “complete surge in numbers” in the Ole Miss TPUSA chapter, which she said started at 200 people during the beginning of her presidency, and which has since grown to 1,500 students.
The law student said that “people want to be involved, and they want to be conservative.”
Lesley Lachman, Ole Miss TPUSA chapter president, talks about the local student organization’s unprecedented growth before JD Vance and Erika Kirk’s appearance on campus.(Fox News Digital )
“[Charlie Kirk’s] death has motivated people not only to get involved on social media, but also to get involved on campus,” she noted before mentioning the nonprofit’s newly minted CEO, Erika Kirk.
“Erika Kirk is a force. She’s a fighter. I think what she’s gone through is unbelievable,” Lachman shared.
“I think her motherly instincts really do give her the capability to be a wonderful leader, and I could see her growing this organization even bigger, especially with this big boom happening,” she mentioned.
Ole Miss, also known as the University of Mississippi, expects an immense turn out of attendees for the TPUSA event featuring JD Vance and Erika Kirk. (Fox News Digital)
There have been various reports from chapter presidents at different schools describing the same uptick in student involvement for the organization following Kirk’s passing on September 10th.
Despite growing support for the nonprofit across the nation, reports of hatred and acts of violence from TPUSA student members continue.
“I think the work we’ve done on campus is really beautiful, but really the bigger message of this is the turning point and the work is going to continue,” Lachman said.
The visit marks the first stop on the “This Is the Turning Point” campus tour, led by Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who will introduce Vance before a student Q&A session modeled after her husband’s signature style.
What Is Turning Point USA?
Turning Point USA is a conservative nonprofit student organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery. The group says its mission is to identify, educate and organize students to promote principles of free markets, limited government and individual liberty. Over the past decade, it has become a major force in conservative youth politics through its campus chapters, media network and national events. Supporters see it as a counterweight to liberal bias in higher education, while critics accuse it of fueling polarization and controversy through its tactics and messaging.
Turning Point USA Tour: Full List of Stops
Turning Point USA’s “This Is the Turning Point Tour” features a series of campus events across the country this fall. Future stops include Auburn University on November 5, and the University of California, Berkeley on November 10. The tour’s organizers say additional stops may be announced. The series is designed to engage students on issues such as free speech, conservative values and activism on college campuses.
Who Is Speaking at the Turning Point USA Events?
The “This Is The Turning Point Tour” boasts a robust lineup of prominent conservative speakers and public figures. Among the high-profile names set to appear are media personalities Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and governors Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Greg Gianforte of Montana.
The tour also features actor-comedians Russell Brand and Rob Schneider, Christian author Frank Turek, commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, and other well-known conservative voices — including like Michael Knowles and Glenn Beck.
These events are billed as opportunities for students to engage directly with leading figures in the conservative movement and participate in what TPUSA calls the “Prove Me Wrong” debate format. The organisation says the tour aims to equip young conservatives with the tools to challenge prevailing campus narratives and promote free market and limited-government ideas.
When Was Charlie Kirk Shot?
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The shooting occurred during an event on his “American Comeback Tour” and sparked national outrage over political violence. Witnesses said Kirk was struck in the upper body as he addressed the crowd. The attack remains under investigation, and political leaders across the spectrum have condemned the killing.
Where Did Charlie Kirk Go to College?
Charlie Kirk briefly attended Harper College, a community college in Palatine, Illinois, before leaving to focus full time on political activism. He was accepted to Baylor University but chose instead to grow Turning Point USA, which he founded at age 18. Kirk later took online courses at King’s College in New York but did not complete a degree. Despite not finishing college, he became one of the most visible young conservative figures in the country.
A Rutgers University teachers’ union released a statement Tuesday defending Antifa-aligned professor Mark Bray and hitting the school’s Turning Point USA chapter, which launched a petition to have him removed.
“Rutgers Professor and AAUP-AFT member Dr. Mark Bray has come under attack from Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship,” the Rutgers AAUP-AFT Academic Worker Union said in a Tuesday X post.
“As a result of this attack, he has been doxxed and threatened and has had to leave the country to protect himself and his family,” the statement continued. “As members of the Rutgers and New Jersey labor community, and as unions committed to the defense of our coworkers, we stand in strong solidarity with Professor Mark Bray and his partner, Professor Yesenia Barragan. We affirm the principles of academic freedom and support strong First Amendment rights for all workers in higher ed and beyond.”
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights logo is shown on concrete before the game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Oregon Ducks at SHI Stadium on Oct. 18, 2025, in Piscataway, New Jersey.(Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
The statement follows weeks of controversy surrounding Bray.
Earlier this month, members of Rutgers’ Turning Point USA chapter launched a petition to remove Bray, an assistant teaching professor at Rutgers, citing concerns over his past statements supporting Antifa.
Bray, who recently moved abroad “for safety reasons” and said that he had been doxxed and “received multiple death threats,” has expressed strong support for “antifacism” in previous online posts.
The seaside town and natural bay of Calella de Palafrugell on Catalonia’s Costa Brava. (L) Mark Bray, a Rutgers assistant professor of history, waits in a hotel room in Newark, N.J., before a planned flight to Spain on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey; iStock)
In an earlier statement posted at the beginning of October supporting Bray, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT called Turning Point USA “part of a larger network of groups and elected officials who have targeted faculty at Rutgers and around the country. The bad-faith effort to frame Dr. Bray as a threat to students and to get him fired is an affront to Rutgers’ values of academic freedom, as well as to Turning Point’s self-proclaimed commitment to a culture of open debate.”
Whitney Strub, associate professor at Rutgers who has taught courses including Introduction to LGBT Studies, Visions of the City in American Cinema, and Gender and Sexuality in American History, among others, is also co-chair of the Joint Academic Freedom Committee at the Rutgers AAUP-AFT.
Strub posted about Kirk’s assassination on X on Sept. 10, writing, “I don’t actually think Charlie Kirk is going to be our Archduke Franz Ferdinand or Reichstag fire, Trump himself got shot last year and everyone forgot about it within a week. We just live in a violent dystopian hell and this is completely normal.”
He added, “Sorry to see Charlie Kirk didn’t make it. I deplore gun violence & find it tacky to speak ill of the dead so tomorrow I’ll pay my respects by protesting in my diapers.”
The chancellor of Rutgers University said the Ivy League institution is committed to academic freedom and will be launching a safety review and “academic freedom” task force amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Antifa-aligned professor Mark Bray. (Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images, AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
Megyn Doyle, a student at Rutgers and the treasurer for the Turning Point USA chapter, who started the petition to remove Bray, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the Rutgers AAUP-AFT statement is “defamatory.”
“The Statement from the union says our petition caused ‘Doxxing and death threats’ and we have deprived students of the ability to exchange ideas in the classroom,” Doyle said.
She added, “This statement is not only defamatory, but it also defends an Antifa Professor who is affiliated with The Black Rosa Anarchist federation that calls for ‘mass civil disobedience,’ ‘militancy,’ ‘Illegal strikes,’ and wants to make sure that in 20 years it’s costly to say you voted for Trump.”
“This ‘academic freedom’ that the union is suggesting we are destroying is just Mark Bray’s repeated hostility towards conservatives,” Doyle said.
Ava Kwan, the chapter’s outreach coordinator, told Fox News Digital in a statement that “The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (Rutgers AAUP-AFT) will not stop with their incessant lies about our TPUSA chapter.”
She added, “Their choice of language, claiming Bray is under ‘attack’ by us is evidence that they are grasping at straws, unsuccessfully attempting to manipulate the narrative about Dr. Antifa’s terrorist activities. Everyone knows that advocating for preemptive violence against so-called fascists and financing a domestic terrorist organization is not protected speech.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Rutgers and Bray for comment.
Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to rachel.delguidice@fox.com.
Following the state department’s review of their social media accounts, six foreigners have had their visas revoked for allegedly making light of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative figure, was killed on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University on behalf of his organization Turning Point USA. As President Trump was posthumously awarding Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the announcement of visa revocation was made by the State Department.
Kirk was revered by Trump as a “Great American Hero” and even a “martyr” for freedom. As such, the Trump administration has targeted people for comments about Kirk. Although these individuals are from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa, the names and types of visas these individuals had are yet to be revealed.
Nhlamulo Baloyi, a South African national, has come forward to confirm that the State Department revoked his visa that was supposed to expire in 2032. This took place after uploading a post that said “Charlie Kirk won’t be remembered as a hero” and suggesting that his followers were a “movement of white nationalist trailer trash.”
Baloyi says that “this goes against all the values that one has known about America”, contending that the revocation of his visa is a free speech violation. He mentions that he condemns political violence and that his post was simply intended to shed light on some of the double standards surrounding race.
The State Department has commented in a post on X that “The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans”. These actions, an effort to silence criticism of the passed political figure.
The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:
Many companies and institutions have fired, suspended, and otherwise disciplined people for making social media posts regarding Kirk’s death. David Axelrod, former advisor to Barack Obama, argues, posting on X, that “U.S. revokes visas for 6 foreigners for derisive posthumous comments about Charlie Kirk–who was ironically, a self-styled champion of free speech!”
Scroll to continue reading
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said they “will defend our borders, our culture, and our citizens by enforcing our immigration laws”. Other top officials, such as Vice President JD Vance, have encouraged people to call out any offensive language about Kirk they may find online.
The counterprogramming culture wars have begun. Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA has announced that it’s planning its own Super Bowl halftime show, in protest of the NFL’s decision to have Latin music superstar Bad Bunny headline the main event. The so-called All-American Halftime Show will take place on February 8, 2026, the same date as Super Bowl LX.
Conservatives were up in arms after it was announced that Bad Bunny—one of the biggest artists in the world, with more than 80 million Spotify listeners each month, as well as an American citizen from Puerto Rico—would be headlining the Super Bowl halftime show. Speaking to right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noemthreatened that ICE would be “all over that place” at the Super Bowl, which will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Noem maintained that she has every intention to “enforce the law.” House Speaker Mike Johnson called booking Bad Bunny “a terrible decision” and offered an alternative: 82-year-old country singer Lee Greenwood, who Johnson said would attract a “broader audience.” (For the record: the “God Bless the USA” singer has less than 450,000 monthly Spotify listeners, roughly 190 times less than Bad Bunny). Even President Donald Trump called Bad Bunny an “absolutely ridiculous” choice to headline the Super Bowl, despite claiming he had “never heard of him.”
As of now, it’s unclear where the All-American Halftime Show will take place or air. On social media, Turning Point USA said, “performers and event details coming soon.” On a website for the event, there’s a survey that asks the public, “What music genres would you like to see featured?” Various options include: “Americana,” “Worship,” and “Anything in English”—seemingly a dig at Bad Bunny, who mostly performs in his native Spanish.
Although Puerto Rico is, again, an American territory, Turning Point USA has decided that Bad Bunny is not American enough to headline the Super Bowl. So, who might they book to compete with the biggest televised music event of the year? Perhaps they’ll reach out to Carrie Underwood, the American Idol winner turned country music star who made the controversial decision to sing at Trump’s inauguration in January. But while her politics may (or may not) align with those of Turning Point USA, Underwood might be reticent to take a stand against the NFL. After all, she famously sings the “Sunday Night Football” opening song. Counterprogramming football’s biggest night would probably jeopardize her bag.
A few weeks ago, Turning Point USA probably would have loved if country rock phenom Zach Bryan headlined the event. Bryan is one of the biggest names in country music at the moment, recently breaking the record for largest ticketed concert ever held in the US with over 112,408 fans attending his concert at Michigan Stadium on September 27, 2025. But he might be a tough sell as well. Last week, Bryan teased the lyrics to his upcoming song “Bad News,” which seemingly criticizes ICE. “I heard the cops came / Cocky motherf–kers, ain’t they? / And ICE is gonna come bust down your door,” he sings in the song, as teased on Instagram. Kristi Noem took Bryan to task for the song, calling it “completely disrespectful.” Bryan, who previously described himself as a “total libertarian,” wrote on his Instagram story that he is “on neither of these radical sides,” and that the song “is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything.” So perhaps Bryan may not be considered conservative enough for Turning Point USA to book him as a headliner.
Because even music has turned into team sports, Turning Point USA has announced that it will be hosting its own Super Bowl halftime show in protest of the NFL’s official headliner, Bad Bunny.
The right-wing organization, which was founded by the late Charlie Kirk, posted about its “All American Halftime Show” on social media, writing, “Performers and event details coming soon.” The post links to a survey that allows people to select which music genres they would like to be featured at the big game, including “Anything in English,” “Americana” and “Worship.” (It also lists “Hip Hop,” despite Kirk once advocating for people to “stop listening to rap music and this degenerate hip-hop stuff.”)
It’s unclear how and where Turning Point’s counterprogramming will be aired, but viewers would have to turn off the Super Bowl broadcast and switch to the “All American Halftime Show,” which will celebrate “faith, family and freedom,” according to the website.
The announcement that Bad Bunny, one of the most famous music stars in the world, will perform at the 2026 Super Bowl sparked an immediate right-wing backlash. Government officials began weighing in on the Puerto Rican artist’s Spanish-language music catalog and his recent comments about skipping the United States on his last tour due to fears about his fans encountering ICE agents.
Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, said immigration enforcement agents would be “all over” the Super Bowl because, in her belief, the only people who should be attending the game are “law-abiding Americans who love this country.” House Speaker Mike Johnson said booking Bad Bunny was “a terrible decision,” suggesting that Lee Greenwood would attract a “broader audience,” despite the 1980s country icon boasting fewer than 500,000 Spotify listeners compared with Bad Bunny’s 80 million. Even Donald Trump called the Bad Bunny selection “absolutely ridiculous” despite admitting “I’ve never heard of him.” The hosts of “The Charlie Kirk Show” also slammed Bad Bunny on a recent episode of the conservative talk program, which continued after Kirk’s death. (After he was assassinated in September while debating college students in Utah, Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, assumed the role of CEO of Turning Point USA.)
During his “Saturday Night Live” monologue on Oct. 4, Bad Bunny mocked conservative pundits for the backlash surrounding his Super Bowl performance. He delivered some heartfelt remarks in Spanish, thanking his fans and acknowledging Latinos’ contributions in the U.S. Then, in English, he quipped: “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks against Republicans supporting Rep. Dustin Burrows in the Texas House speaker’s race at the headquarters for Texas Scorecard, a conservative think tank, in Leander, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
Jay Janner
USA TODAY Network
We’re starting to wonder if Ken Paxton is pining for his college days at Baylor.
After all, the attorney general seems unusually engaged in just about every on-campus controversy and debate — or at least the ones where he finds political advantage.
This time, it’s TCU in the spotlight. Chloe Cole, who advocates against gender transition for minors, alleged that the university canceled a scheduled event planned by the university chapter of Turning Point USA, the organization founded by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. School officials say the event was never scheduled to begin with because it did not have a secure space available on relatively short notice. Paxton, a master of speaking boldly when he knows little, declared he would get to the bottom of this “free speech” issue.
We can’t believe we have to say this to a self-described conservative Republican, but: TCU is a private institution. It can welcome or reject any campus visitor or event, for any reason. It’s a different standard than the state-supported universities that have previously drawn fire.
Once upon a time, Republicans cherished that difference. Many stood up for the rights of private businesses or entities against what they saw as intrusive government.
These days, Ken Paxton is that intrusive government.
Republican populism flexes government power
As the GOP has moved inexorably in a populist direction, elected officials have increasingly sought to use the government power that they once feared to get the policy outcomes they desire — or simply to intimidate private institutions.
Paxton has taken this to a new level. Over three terms, he has morphed the job of attorney general into enforcer of whatever his political side wants at the moment. Republicans have developed grievances in recent years with technology companies, Big Pharma and, most recently, universities, including the University of North Texas. To be clear, many of these complaints have merit, and there’s a role for government to counter expansive corporate power.
The hypocrisy is inescapable, though: The party that ascended to majorities in no small part by bashing “frivolous lawsuits” decided by “activist judges” is more than happy to turn to the courts or hang the looming threat of litigation over schools and companies if they don’t get the outcome they desire.
It’s mobster government. Nice university you’ve got there; it would be a shame if anything happened to it.
Colleges, even private ones like TCU, must embrace free speech
TCU, like all colleges, should embrace and promote freedom of speech. Institutions of higher education must be vigorous promoters of a free-expression culture, and not just in narrow, legalistic ways. They should be devoted to the idea that unpopular ideas are often those that need the most vigorous defense. They should reject the heckler’s veto and counter the idea that speech, however noxious or even hateful, is equivalent to violence.
A poster for conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s ‘Live Free’ tour taken from the Turning Point USA TCU chapter’s Facebook page. Courtesy of Turning Point USA at TCU
But in this case, there’s no evidence of anything other than a logistical issue. Kirk himself held an event on campus in 2023, and the Turning Point chapter had a memorial service for him after his assassination last month.
Perhaps university officials could have worked a little harder to find a space and fulfill the roles we describe above. But what happened is not a suppression of anyone’s rights, and it’s well within the university’s prerogative to control the scheduling of its facilities.
State universities have an obligation to be even more open, and elected officials should hold their feet to the fire. But private institutions — think hard, General Paxton, surely you still understand the difference — are more immune from government scrutiny.
But again, activists at all levels seem to be forgetting this distinction. Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Bo French has been on a separate crusade against TCU, dropping “investigations” of the university’s diversity practices, its professors’ comments and whatever else he can find in an attempt to keep the outrage fire stoked.
French gets more attention for his ignominious comments about minorities, gay people and immigrants. Tarrant Republican leaders should ask tough questions about who’s doing the actual work of the party — raising money, winning campaigns and assisting with the conduct of elections — while French sticks his nose in so many other people’s business.
French and other critics of TCU like to drop the cliche that the university should remember what the “C” in “TCU” stands for. (Newsflash: If you’re the 18,000th person to post that thought on X, it’s not all that clever.) We’re not aware of a time when Jesus addressed the procedure of booking lecture halls. TCU’s history is largely secular, while still dedicated to Christian values. It’s not Baylor, no matter how much Paxton might want it to be.
The attorney general seems to be everywhere all the time. That’s one way to bolster his U.S. Senate campaign or distract from his personal and professional controversies.
It’s just a shame that so many institutions, especially private ones, must suffer in service to Paxton’s ambition.
Editorials are the positions of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bradford William Davis, columnist and editorial writer; Bud Kennedy, columnist; and Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor. Most editorials are written by Rusak or Davis. Editorials are unsigned because they represent the board’s consensus positions, not necessarily the views of individual writers.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How are topics and positions chosen?
The Editorial Board meets regularly to discuss issues in the news and what points should be made in editorials. We strive to build a consensus to produce the strongest editorials possible, but when we differ, we put matters to a vote.
The board aims to be consistent with stances it has taken in the past but usually engages in a fresh discussion based on new developments and different perspectives.
We focus on local and state news, though we will also weigh in on national issues with an eye toward their impact on Texas or the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
How are these different from news articles or signed columns?
News reporters strive to keep their opinions out of what they write. They have no input on the Editorial Board’s stances. The board consults their reporting and expertise but does its own research for editorials.
Signed columns by writers such as Allen, Kennedy and Rusak contain the writer’s personal opinions.
How can I respond to an editorial, suggest a topic or ask a question?
Do you have an opinion on this topic? Tell us!
We love to hear from Texans with opinions on the news — and to publish those views in the Opinion section.
• Letters should be no more than 150 words.
• Writers should submit letters only once every 30 days.
• Include your name, address (including city of residence), phone number and email address, so we can contact you if we have questions.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will investigate reports that Texas Christian University canceled an event planned by the school’s chapter of Turning Point USA, he said on social media.
Paxton’s move to investigate came after the event’s speaker, activist Chloe Cole, called the university out on social media Tuesday.
Cole is a detransition activist, according to her social media. She began to transition to male at the age of 12, but later reversed her transition at the age of 17.
The first college to actually thank me for speaking on their campus instead of cancelling me like @TCU just did!
Christian colleges (and otherwise) need to step up to keep democracy and free speech alive in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. https://t.co/KTQbCNW62F
In a post on X, Cole thanked Michigan’s Hillsdale College for hosting her event, calling the school “the first college to actually thank me for speaking on their campus instead of canceling me like TCU just did.”
Cole said that TCU’s student organizers had reserved a room on campus for the event and confirmed it was available at the requested time, but the university later denied them access, according to social media posts.
In a statement, university officials refuted Cole’s account, saying that a party not affiliated with the university invited Cole to appear on campus and that the student chapter then asked the university to host the event.
“The requested space was already booked with another student event,” a university spokesperson said. “We explored options and notified the group on Sept. 25 that a secure space was not available given the short notice, but we offered to find another date or space for the event. TCU never cancelled this event as it was never booked.”
The event has been moved to Fort Worth’s Birchman Baptist Church, according to an updated flyer.
Representatives for Turning Point USA and its TCU affiliate could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
The attorney general’s office did not immediately return a phone call from the Star-Telegram.
Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.
Turning Point USA’s college tour will return to Utah on Tuesday for its first event in the state since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus earlier this month.The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most significant figures in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk himself has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA, the youth organization he founded, has seen a surge of interest across the nation, with tens of thousands of requests to launch new chapters in high schools and on college campuses.Tuesday’s event, which was scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase how Turning Point is finding its path forward without its charismatic leader, who headlined many of its events and was instrumental in drawing crowds and attention.The college tour is now being headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.And it will further a pledge his widow, Erika Kirk, made to continue the campus tour and the work of the organization he founded. She now oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends.‘Nothing is changing’Erika Kirk has sought to assure her husband’s followers that she intends to continue to run the operation as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.“We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said during an appearance on his podcast last week.That will include, she said, continuing to tape the daily podcast.“My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said, announcing plans for a rotating cast of hosts. She said they intended to lean heavily on old clips of her husband, including answering callers’ questions.“We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she said.Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.Mikey McCoy, Kirk’s former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with members of the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.The events have served as tributes to KirkThe events so far have served as tributes to the late Kirk, with a focus on prayer, as well as the question-and-answer sessions that he was known for.At Virginia Tech last week, the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk’s legacy forward.“The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”He also praised Erika Kirk as an “extraordinary” leader.“Over the course of the last two weeks, Erika Kirk has demonstrated that she not only has the courage of a lion, but she has the heart of a saint. We have grieved with her and her family. We have prayed for her and her family,” he said. “Is there anyone better to lead Turning Point going forward than Erika Kirk?”He then turned the stage over to Kelly, who said Charlie Kirk had asked her to join the tour several months ago. She said she knew appearing onstage carried risk, but felt it was important to be there “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.At another event at the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles gave a solo speech in lieu of the two-man conversation with Kirk that was originally planned. Then he continued Kirk’s tradition of responding to questions from the audience, which ranged from one man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing that the root of societal problems stems from letting women vote. (To the latter, he responded that women aren’t to blame because “men need to lead women.”)As Knowles spoke, a spotlight shined on a chair left empty for Kirk.Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about the MAGA movement fracturing without Kirk doing the day-to-day work to build bridges between warring groups.“Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement. It’s simply a fact,” he said. “There is no replacing him in that regard.”“The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.
The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most significant figures in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk himself has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA, the youth organization he founded, has seen a surge of interest across the nation, with tens of thousands of requests to launch new chapters in high schools and on college campuses.
Tuesday’s event, which was scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase how Turning Point is finding its path forward without its charismatic leader, who headlined many of its events and was instrumental in drawing crowds and attention.
The college tour is now being headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.
And it will further a pledge his widow, Erika Kirk, made to continue the campus tour and the work of the organization he founded. She now oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends.
‘Nothing is changing’
Erika Kirk has sought to assure her husband’s followers that she intends to continue to run the operation as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.
“We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said during an appearance on his podcast last week.
That will include, she said, continuing to tape the daily podcast.
“My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said, announcing plans for a rotating cast of hosts. She said they intended to lean heavily on old clips of her husband, including answering callers’ questions.
“We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she said.
Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.
Mikey McCoy, Kirk’s former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with members of the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.
The events have served as tributes to Kirk
The events so far have served as tributes to the late Kirk, with a focus on prayer, as well as the question-and-answer sessions that he was known for.
At Virginia Tech last week, the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk’s legacy forward.
“The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”
He also praised Erika Kirk as an “extraordinary” leader.
“Over the course of the last two weeks, Erika Kirk has demonstrated that she not only has the courage of a lion, but she has the heart of a saint. We have grieved with her and her family. We have prayed for her and her family,” he said. “Is there anyone better to lead Turning Point going forward than Erika Kirk?”
He then turned the stage over to Kelly, who said Charlie Kirk had asked her to join the tour several months ago. She said she knew appearing onstage carried risk, but felt it was important to be there “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.
At another event at the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles gave a solo speech in lieu of the two-man conversation with Kirk that was originally planned. Then he continued Kirk’s tradition of responding to questions from the audience, which ranged from one man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing that the root of societal problems stems from letting women vote. (To the latter, he responded that women aren’t to blame because “men need to lead women.”)
As Knowles spoke, a spotlight shined on a chair left empty for Kirk.
Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about the MAGA movement fracturing without Kirk doing the day-to-day work to build bridges between warring groups.
“Charlie was the unifying figure for the movement. It’s simply a fact,” he said. “There is no replacing him in that regard.”
“The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
A lonely voice rose above the rancor after the murder of Charlie Kirk. Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah, may not have been familiar to many, but after the assassination in his state, he asked whether we could all “stop hating our fellow Americans.” We wanted to hear more and we were surprised to learn the 50-year-old Republican has spent years campaigning for reconciliation. Cox is asking Americans to respect our differences, which, at this moment, is not universally admired in his own party.
Gov. Spencer Cox: I get accused on the right all the time of– I just want people to have a “kumbaya” moment. I want people to hold hands and just hug it out. And we’re done with that. We’re done holding hands and hugging it out. I’m not asking anybody to hold hands and hug it out. I’m not asking for that. I’m trying to get people to stop shooting each other. That’s it. And I think what I’m doing and what I’m saying is the best way to do that. Some people will disagree with that and that’s OK. We should have these debates as a society. I’m not always right. I’ve made mistakes. Other politicians, I think, are making mistakes right now in trying to elevate the temperature. But, but I’m going to just keep having these conversations.
Scott Pelley: In this moment, what’s at stake?
Gov. Spencer Cox: Scott, I, I, I– don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the, the future of our country is at stake. This grand experiment that we embarked on 250 years ago, can we hold together?
Scott Pelley: And what if our politics cannot find the path to the brighter light?
Gov. Spencer Cox: That’s the question I always ask. When I hear people say that, that we’re at war. I say, “OK. And and and what? What does that mean? What is next? Who, who am I supposed to shoot now?”
The shot, September 10th, was the kind of attack now happening every couple of months or so. In April, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and his family escaped after their home was firebombed. In June, in theirhomes, two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers and their spouses were gunned down. A year earlier, on the campaign, it was Donald Trump himself. When told this time it was Utah, Cox didn’t believe it. But there it was on his phone.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox
60 Minutes
Gov. Spencer Cox: The video was already out. There was no fog of war. There, there was no doubt what had happened. That terrible awful video that I wish I had not seen. I hate, again, social media, that almost every person in this country, including our young people, have seen that video on a loop over and over and over again. And I can’t unsee it. I can’t stop seeing it. Every time I close my eyes, that’s what I see.
The governor sent an aide to the hospital, who reported that Kirk was dead. Cox dialed a number.
Scott Pelley: As you’re calling the White House, what is in your heart?
Gov. Spencer Cox: Just sickness. Nauseous. Disbelief. Anger. At this point, I’m very angry.
Gov. Spencer Cox (during press conference on Sept. 10, 2025): …to whoever did this, we will find you, we will try you and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law…
His anger was showing.
Gov. Spencer Cox (during press conference on Sept. 10, 2025): I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.
But when he searched for meaning, he recalled the suffering of both parties.
Gov. Spencer Cox (during press conference on Sept. 10, 2025): Our nation is broken. We’ve had political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination on a presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States. Nothing I say can unite us as a country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. We just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be.
Gov. Spencer Cox: I’ve been following, I’ve been studying political violence. And so I, I’m keenly aware when these things happen and I’m seeing, I’m seeing people get, get murdered, get attacked who are Democrats and Republicans and that’s where it came from in that moment.
Scott Pelley: In the days after the murder, as you’re trying to bring the country together, Steve Bannon, the philosopher of the MAGA Right, called you a national embarrassment.
Gov. Spencer Cox: Yeah. I love free speech. I would give my life defending his right to say that about me. That’s OK. We can have that debate. There are some people that think I am a national embarrassment. And that’s OK too.
Scott Pelley: Who do you blame for the division?
Gov. Spencer Cox: I do believe that social media is a cancer. And it is taking all of our worst impulses and putting them on steroids. It, it is driving us to division. It is driving us to hate. These algorithms that have captured our, our very souls. They’ve, they’ve captured our free agency. These dopamine hits that get our young people and our old people addicted to outrage and hate that serve us up on a regular basis are absolutely leading us down a, a very dark path.
Scott Pelley and Gov. Spencer Cox
60 Minutes
A path through platforms that look like civil war, powered by algorithms, programs, written to amplify posts of rage.
Gov. Spencer Cox: The algorithms are absolutely destroying us. Once they know what your political leanings are, then it’s like a pack of wolves that just attack. We have this collective problem where- that we can’t solve because we’re all sucked in, and we don’t know how to get out.
We met Spencer Cox in the capitol at the foot of the Wasatch Range in Salt Lake City. He was raised, one of eight, on a farm of modest means. He’s a lawyer, devoutly Mormon, with three years left on his second term. His conservative record includes tax cuts, expansion of gun rights and restrictions on abortion.
Scott Pelley: You are a Republican but not a Trump Republican.
Gov. Spencer Cox: Well, that, that depends. I did vote for him this last time. He…
Scott Pelley: But not in ’16 or 2020.
Gov. Spencer Cox: That is also correct. And he gives me a very hard time about that every time we’re, we’re together. The tent is broad on the right. And I’m trying to show one way to do politics.
His way to do politics surprised many in 2020. Campaigning for governor, he refused to run negative ads.
Spencer Cox (campaign ad from 2020): I think you should vote for me.
Chris Peterson (campaign ad from 2020): Yeah, but, but really, you should vote for me.
Instead, he asked his Democratic opponent to join him on the air.
Spencer Cox (campaign ad from 2020): We can disagree without hating each other.
Chris Peterson (campaign ad from 2020): And win or lose in Utah, we work together.
Spencer Cox (campaign ad from 2020): So, let’s show the country that there’s a better way.
Chris Peterson (campaign ad from 2020): My name’s Chris Peterson
Spencer Cox (campaign ad from 2020): and I’m Spencer Cox,
Both (campaign ad from 2020): and we approve this message.
Cox took the message beyond Utah when, in 2023, he became chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association. There, he launched a campaign called “Disagree Better,” and went back on the air.
(Disagree Better video from 2023) SPENCER COX: I’m Spencer Cox Republican governor of Utah,
(Disagree Better video from 2023) JARED POLIS: and I’m Jared Polis, Democratic governor of Colorado…
Twenty three governors from both parties joined “Disagree Better.”
(Disagree Better video from 2023) SPENCER COX: Healthy disagreement means not assuming that the other side is deluded, misinformed or actively trying to overthrow America.
This month, Cox took the message to the University of Notre Dame. He’s done more than 20 of these events nationwide, often with Democratic governors, including Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico.
Govs. Spencer Cox and Michelle Lujan Grisham
60 Minutes
Scott Pelley: Does Disagree Better mean that we should drop our differences and everybody meets in the middle?
Gov. Spencer Cox: Absolutely not. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of that. Abortion is an issue on which we disagree passionately. And and yet, even though we have these very strong, it looks like a chasm between us, I think we would both agree that we should be doing more to take care of, of single moms. I think those are the types of things that we can agree on while still being pretty passionate about, about whether we think abortion should be legal or not.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: And when you do that and we listen and we find that we– there is some common ground, it– it–reduces, right, lowers the temperature. It provides opportunity not just for discourse, but doing something.
Scott Pelley: Do governors understand something that Washington does not?
Both: Yes!
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: Yes. We’re completely about results, not about rhetoric.
Gov. Spencer Cox: We like to say that potholes aren’t partisan. And governors do have to deliver actual results. I think there’s, sadly, in in D.C. we’ve seen this performative politics, and, and, and much less substance.
Scott Pelley: There are some people watching this interview who are disgusted that you two are sitting together.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: Well, we need courage over comfort. You know, I don’t work for– a partisan party. I work for every single New Mexican.
Gov. Spencer Cox: Yeah, I see her as an American before I see her as, as a Democrat or anything else. I think we need more of these conversations. I think we need them in our– in our own homes, in our own neighborhoods, in our school boards, in our city councils all across the country.
The day Charlie Kirk was murdered, one of the first calls Spencer Cox received was from Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: We should be condemning at every chance we get political violence. Our democracy falters when we don’t. This is an American. This is a person. This is a person who lost his life in free speech. And there’s real grieving for that family. And it doesn’t end tomorrow. It will last a lifetime.
Scott Pelley: Says the Democrat.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: Says the Democrat, because it’s true. It’s true.
Gov. Spencer Cox: Please include that.
Gov. Spencer Cox and Scott Pelley on the Utah Valley University campus
60 Minutes
We returned with Spencer Cox to Utah Valley University.
Gov Spencer Cox (to crowd during Utah Valley University visit on Sept. 17, 2025): That flag, that doesn’t represent any single group. It doesn’t represent one part of our country and not another part of our country.
Students gathered where Charlie Kirk was killed. Cox told the crowd they can’t count on politicians. Change, he said, must come from all of you.
Gov. Spencer Cox: I’m desperately looking for more architects and fewer arsonists. Again, it’s so easy to burn down and tear down and– and we’ve got too much of that today. I’m I’m hoping that a positive vision for our country, a positive vision for our party treating everyone with dignity and respect, that’s how we get our country back.
Scott Pelley: Some people watching this interview might be thinking, “He should run for president.” But the fact is you would never survive Republican primaries.
Gov. Spencer Cox: Well, the thought of, of– running for president makes me nauseous. I I, have no interest in that. I’m glad that there are good people who are willing to do that. But– that is not something I’ve ever been interested in. And you’re also correct. The, the, way we select our candidates makes it almost impossible for someone like me to have an opportunity.
Scott Pelley: Is it possible that your message is naïve, that the violence will just continue?
Gov. Spencer Cox: That’s– that’s very possible, that’s very possible. I think the founders were naïve to believe that they could start a new country based on very different principles than virtually any country in the history of the world. I think that it was naïve that– we could rebuild after a civil war had fractured us and we had killed 600,000 of our fellow Americans. So, I believe that naiveté with– some passion can change the world. It’s probably the only thing that ever has.
Produced by Maria Gavrilovic. Associate producer, Madeleine Carlisle. Broadcast associates, Michelle Karim andGeorgia Rosenberg. News associate, Ava Peabody. Edited by Peter M. Berman.
Scott Pelley, one of the most experienced and awarded journalists today, has been reporting stories for 60 Minutes since 2004. The 2024-25 season is his 21st on the broadcast. Scott has won half of all major awards earned by 60 Minutes during his tenure at the venerable CBS newsmagazine.
Two eyewitnesses to the assassination of Charlie Kirk say America must return to civilized debate — even if their viewpoints don’t otherwise align.
Hunter Kozak was the last person to speak to Kirk. A self-professed liberal who posts political TikTok videos, Kozak attended the event at Utah Valley University this month, aware that he was in the minority of attendees and eager to debate the conservative Turning Point USA founder.
He was at odds with Kirk on many issues, going so far as to suggest Kirk’s policy proposals harmed the country. But Kozak especially wanted to challenge Kirk on his claims that linked transgender people to mass shootings. As the two began their pointed exchange, a sniper from a rooftop fatally wounded Kirk, mere feet from where Kozak was standing.
Jeb Jacobi says he saw Kirk as an inspiration. The Utah Valley University student was at the event volunteering for Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk co-founded in 2012 to advocate for conservatism on college campuses. It was Jacobi’s second time meeting Kirk, whom he admired for the campus debates that made him popular online. Before this month’s event, Jacobi took a photo with Kirk, and he was sitting nearby when Kirk was shot.
Today, Kozak and Jacobi come together on one thing: Americans need to keep having civil conversations — especially when they don’t see eye-to-eye.
“I think that one of the few things that we can agree on is this necessity for a conversation,” Kozak told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. “I think that we need to remember that we still have to live with each other. That these are still our neighbors.”
Kozak told 60 Minutes that Kirk’s team had pre-approved his question for the event, and he was placed second in line to ask it. He said he feels a weight in being the last person to have spoken to Kirk.
“I don’t really know how to grapple with that,” Kozak said. “I mean, he’s answered tens of thousands of questions, and I just, that was the first question I’ve ever asked him. We never talked before that.”
Jeb Jacobi recalled running toward safety after the shooting, calling his family to recount what he had seen. “He’s been shot,” Jacobi recalled telling his mother. “I literally watched a bullet enter his neck, and I watched him die in front of me.”
Jacobi said Kirk’s murder likely brings together moderate Democrats and Republicans, even as it drives apart the more radical elements in both political parties.
“I think that there needs to be effective communication between both parties in order to find solid ground on this issue,” Jacobi told Pelley.
On the first day classes resumed at Utah Valley University after the shooting, Utah Governor Spencer Cox visited the campus to speak with students, promoting a similar message of civility and coming together.
“I think it’s important not to tell people they shouldn’t disagree that there’s something wrong with disagreement, or that disagreement is the problem,” Cox told a group of students. “It’s not the problem, right? It’s how we do that, if that matters.”
Hunter Kozak told Pelley he appreciates the governor’s message of unity but is aware of how appealing the message of vengeance can be when coming from politicians.
“My advice would be more towards the voters who vote for those politicians,” Kozak said, “to look at what you are enabling with your vote and recognize that you have a lot more control over the situation together as a community than you might think.”
The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Scott Rosann.
Video courtesy of Adam Bartholomew / @Lifeisdriving / Mainstreet Media Utah
Brit McCandless Farmer is a digital producer for 60 Minutes, where her work has been recognized by the Webby, Gracie and Telly Awards. Previously, Brit worked at the CBS Weekend News, CBS Mornings, CNN and ABC News.
As conservative activist Erika Kirk publicly mourned her husband Charlie Kirk, social media users targeted her work on a Romanian charity project.
“Did ya’ll know Erika Kirk is banned from Romania because her Evangelical group was accused of trafficking children out of Romanian villages?” one self-described “leftist” X user wrote Sept. 23.
Another post from an X user whose bio encouraged people to “vote blue” said, “Erika Kirk is banned from Romania due to sex trafficking allegations — Just saying…”
A PolitiFact reader also texted us to ask if a charity Kirk ran was “accused of child trafficking in Romania.”
Kirk, whose maiden name is Frantzve, founded the nonprofit organization Everyday Heroes Like You, which aimed to assist other charities. That work included an international Romanian Angels project that teamed up with the U.S. Marine Corps to sponsor a Romanian orphanage, Kirk once told Arizona Foothills Magazine.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
What’s the evidence for these claims? There isn’t any.
Some posts repeated the baseless narrative without giving any hint about where it originated.
One of the earliest posts we found, dated Sept. 16, said Kirk’s organization had links to missing Romanian children and trafficking and included screenshots of two articles.
The first, a 2001 report from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, was about a Romanian investigation into Israeli adoption agencies and an international conspiracy to sell children’s organs for transplants. The report did not mention Kirk, Romanian Angels or Everyday Heroes Like You. Kirk was about 13 years old when that news report was published.
The second was a 2023 article from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a media organization founded by the U.S. that reports internationally, including in Romania. It detailed the stories of Romanian children, now adults, who were adopted internationally and who’ve sought information on their Romanian birth families — including some people who concluded they were trafficked as children. This report also did not mention Kirk, Romanian Angels or Everyday Heroes Like You.
Another Sept. 18 post included a screenshot of a Jan. 23, 2022, BBC video titled, “Sex trafficking: Children groomed in Romania sent to UK.” The nine-minute BBC piece focused on young Romanian girls who it reported were groomed in Romania to be trafficked to the United Kingdom. It didn’t mention Kirk or either of her organizations.
Both X posts also contained a low-resolution image with a Romanian Angels banner that encouraged people to “join the movement.” Using a reverse image search, we found a higher resolution version of what looks like a flier with details for a fundraiser organized by Everyday Heroes Like You. The flier, other documents, and Kirk’s socialmediaposts show her traveling to Romania and discussing the project from 2012 to 2014.
The flier says people can “change the life of a Romanian orphan this holiday season” by “adopting” a child, which involved selecting their name from a list, purchasing their “wish list item,” and then bringing it to pack as a gift that would be sent to Orphanage Antonio in Constanta, Romania. An archived version of Everyday Heroes Like You’s website says the project involved a partnership with U.S. service members and United Hands Romania.
We contacted the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army to ask about the partnerships and did not hear back. We also contacted United Hands Romania and received no response.
We emailed press contacts at Romania’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Romanian Police, the General Inspectorate of Border Police and the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons. We received no response.
The news organization Lead Stories said its Romanian staff reviewed media reports and court records and found only positive mentions of work by Romanian Angels and Everyday Heroes Like You.
“Romanian media reported Erika Kirk’s ‘Everyday Heroes like You’ made donations in the form of gifts to Antonio Placement Center in Constanța, as well as to the local hospital, between 2011 and 2015,” Lead Stories reported. “There is no evidence that the ministries were involved in actual international adoptions. A local newspaper article documented the gift donations to the orphans.”
We also searched using the Nexis news database for reports about Kirk being banned from Romania and found none.
We rate the claim that “Erika Kirk is banned from Romania because her Evangelical group was accused of trafficking children out of Romanian villages” False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: Google translations of Romanian government websites were used when reporting this article.
Duval school board member working to update policy to pave the way for TPUSA high school chapters
On Wednesday, April Carney, Vice Chair of the Duval County School Board, proposed a policy change to allow Turning Point USA high school chapters to be formed within the district.
Carney’s proposal came during a Policy Handbook Committee Meeting.
“I have been getting some phone calls from parents about receiving pushback from teachers where students have come forward saying that they wanted to open a Turning Point USA chapter,” Carney said. “I think it’s a violation of the First Amendment to have the teacher to say ‘No, I am not willing to sponsor.’”
The push comes in the aftermath of the assassination of TPUSA’s co-founder, Charlie Kirk.
In a section covering student clubs and organizations, the Duval County School Board Policy Manual states:
“Each organization shall have a certificated administrator or staff member, appointed by the principal to serve as a sponsor or advisor.”
Carney proposed changing the wording to allow someone other than a teacher to serve as a sponsor.
“A student should be able to go to somebody else, another district employee that’s cleared with a Level 2 background check or a community member that’s willing to step up and do that role if they passed a Level 2 background check,” Carney said.
Yasmina White, who has kids enrolled in the school district, said she’s concerned about the policy change proposal because she wouldn’t know who would oversee the club.
“Why are we wanting to bring these random people into our school to support a club? Teachers obviously don’t want to support it because it’s severely controversial. Because right now teachers are under the gun,” White said.
In Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, the following high schools are listed as having TPUSA chapters, according to the organization’s website:
We reached out to Turning Point USA several times on Thursday to get a comment on this and did not hear back by the time the story aired.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier posted a video on social media with Carney on Thursday afternoon and said his Office of Parental Rights “will take legal action against any schools or districts that are preventing TPUSA clubs from existing on campus.”
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Oklahoma State Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters announced plans on Tuesday to establish chapters of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s right-wing organization, Turning Point USA, in every high school in his state, threatening to revoke school credentials if they don’t comply.
“Radical leftist teachers’ unions have dominated classrooms for far too long, and we are taking them back,” Walters wrote on X, announcing a partnership with the conservative activist group.
I am very excited to announce a partnership with @TPUSA to establish chapters in ALL Oklahoma high schools. Radical leftist teachers’ unions have dominated classrooms for far too long, and we are taking them back. pic.twitter.com/3sihJX3sUv
Walters’ announcement comes after Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, took over the organization following his fatal shooting at Utah Valley University. It’s unclear if the widowed Kirk will continue to echo her husband’s thinking against immigrants, Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community or will move the organization further to the right.
“We have seen the outpouring from parents, teachers, and students that want to be engaged in a meaningful work going on at Turning Point,” Walters said. “They want their young people to be engaged in a process that understands free speech, open engagement, dialog about American greatness, a dialog around American values.”
As of this afternoon, in the past 6 days, TPUSA has received 54,000+ requests from high school and college students nationwide to start a chapter or get involved with an existing chapter.
In an interview with local Fox affiliate KOKH-TV, he warns there will be repercussions for schools that refuse to have a Turning Point USA chapter.
“I mean, we would go after their accreditation. We would go after their certificates. So yeah, they would be in danger of not being a school district if they decided to reject a club that is here to promote civic engagement,” Walters said. “Absolutely, they would be violating the law. They would be violating the rules set forth to them by our agency. So yeah, everything would be on the table in that scenario.”
This is not the first move Walters has made to push the Oklahoma school system to the right. Last year, he appointed Chaya Raichik, the creator of the right-wing social media account Libs of TikTok, to the state’s library media advisory board.
“Chaya is on the front lines showing the world exactly what the radical left is all about — lowering standards, porn in schools, and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids,” Walters said at the time.
The GOP school official was recently investigated by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office after two members of the state’s board of education claimed they saw images of naked women on a TV screen in his office. No charges were filed, and Walters called the accusations a “witch hunt.”
During his tenure, Walters pushed a more right-wing agenda for the school systems, saying he would allow ICE into public schools and mandate them to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans for grades five through 12.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma State Superintendent announced plans to establish Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA chapters in high schools.
20 Years OfFreeJournalism
Your SupportFuelsOur Mission
Your SupportFuelsOur Mission
For two decades, HuffPost has been fearless, unflinching, and relentless in pursuit of the truth. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20 — we can’t do this without you.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
“What we’re going to continue to do is make sure that our kids understand American greatness, engage in civic dialog and have that open discussion,” Walters said Tuesday. “We will continue to do all that we can to make sure Oklahoma students have the best education possible.”
Oklahoma ranks close to last in public education nationwide, according to an analysis fromthe U.S. News and World Report, and scored below average in reading, writing and math on the Nation’s Report Card.
Turning Point USA has announced who will take the place of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk for an upcoming Utah State University event.
Also, the group says it will no longer hold public events outdoors, according to Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer.
The “American Comeback Tour” is coming to USU on Sept. 30. It will be held indoors, and will be focused on where Utah should go from here and what healing from Kirk’s death looks like.
A panel of speakers will take part in Kirk’s place, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Gov. Spencer Cox, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, and former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Bowyer told the Deseret News on Monday.
Changes and consistencies in the debates moving forward
Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point Action chief operating officer, answers interview questions in his office at Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Debate will still happen at TPUSA campus events.
“This is who we are. This is the DNA of Turning Point,” Bowyer told the Deseret News. “You can’t have Turning Point and walk away from the things that made us successful.”
Coupled with elevated security measures, Turning Point is “completely committed to continuing the program,” Bowyer said.
He said the organization still has a goal of promoting civil discourse.
“That’s part of the mission, and goal of doing these things is that if you do them and you do it civilly, you win people over. … That’s what Charlie had been doing. That’s his life’s work, and that’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
Many people have reached out and said they would be willing to step in and help fill Kirk’s role on the tour stops, he said.
Kirk’s death is stirring an ‘American revival’
On Sunday, TPUSA hosted Kirk’s funeral at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, bringing in an estimated 200,000 people to honor his life.
Kirk’s wife Erika Kirk, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, members of his Cabinet, Tucker Carlson and others spoke about God, forgiveness and faith.
“I don’t think we realized the yearning for spirituality that existed within the greater political atmosphere,” Bowyer said.
Erika Kirk is the new face of TPUSA
Erika Kirk was named the CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA on Sept. 18.
“Erika is is the face. She is the CEO. She’s one with Charlie,” Bowyer said. “We want to be respectful of her and what she wants to do.”
Two days after her husband’s assassination, Erika spoke in a video filmed at Kirk’s recording studio, thanking the people who have supported her as she grieves. Again during his funeral, Sunday, Erika took the podium, and vowed to continue Kirk’s mission and said she’s forgiven her husband’s killer.
“She’s so loved and so respected and after after yesterday in particular, I think there’s millions of Americans who have her back,” Bowyer said.
The big names filling in for Kirk on other tour stops
Three of the eleven stops on Kirk’s “America Comeback Tour” are yet to be filled. The other seven will be covered by the following politicians and political commentators:
Michael Knowles at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities on Sept. 22.
Megyn Kelly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin at Virginia Tech on Sept. 24.
Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Greg Gianforte at Montana State on Oct. 7.
Glenn Beck at the University of North Dakota on Oct. 9.
Tucker Carlson at Indiana University Bloomington on Oct. 21.
Allie Beth Stuckey and Gov. Jeff Landry at Louisiana State University on Oct. 27.
Rob Schneider and Frank Turek at UC Berkely on Nov. 10.
(CNN) — “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to air on ABC on Tuesday night, the network announced in a statement.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” a spokesperson for the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, said in a statement to CNN. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was abruptly and indefinitely taken off the air last week after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr and networks of affiliate stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar threatened ABC over comments Kimmel made in a monologue about the MAGA movement’s response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The move sparked a national debate about government interference and freedom speech between supporters of President Donald Trump’s administration and Kimmel, who have been vocally critically of each other over the years.
Before news of his pending return on Monday, more than 400 artists, including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Aniston, signed an open letter, organized by the ACLU, in support of Kimmel.
There were organized protests against Disney outside of the company’s offices in New York and Burbank, California over the past week, as well as outside the theater where Kimmel’s show is recorded in Hollywood.
Media analysts have watched as Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden have navigated competing pressures. Disney needs government approval for pending deals like ESPN’s pact with the NFL, while many of its station partners are in the same boat. Additionally, Kimmel’s contract is expiring in May and late-night TV audiences and revenue have been on decline.
Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet is keeping the pressure on station owners: “Disney and ABC caving and allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make. Nextstar and Sinclair do not have to make the same choice.”
Still, Kimmel’s sudden suspension sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, where the comedian and long-time host is well-regarded, both inside and outside ABC.
His show employs between 200 and 250 people. During the WGA strike, which shut down Hollywood productions in 2023, Kimmel provided funds for his crew when production on his show was halted. When production was shut down again during wildfires in Los Angeles early this year, the show’s backlot was used as a donation center to collect and distribute resources to those impacted by the disaster.
Kimmel has not yet publicly commented on the controversy, but presumably will on his show Tuesday night.
CNN has reached out to representatives of the late-night host, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar for comment.
Editor’s note: CNN’s David Goldman and Lisa Respers France contributed to this story.
.JPG "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks against Republicans supporting Rep. Dustin Burrows in the Texas House speaker’s race at the headquarters for Texas Scorecard, a conservative think tank, in Leander, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.")
