Twenty days after Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a Utah college campus, the conservative organization returned to the state amid heightened security. The event Tuesday evening (Sept. 30) at Utah State University (USU), which had been scheduled before Kirk was killed, drew more than 5,000 attendees and a lineup of local Republican politicians.
Hours before the event at USU in Logan, Utah, a bomb squad detonated a suspicious device that was spotted near the Old Main building. Although authorities deemed the item “nonexplosive,” they detonated it “out of an abundance of caution.”
Event attendees had to pass through metal detectors, and law enforcement scanned the area with drones beforehand. According to a review by the Associated Press, Utah Valley University, the site of Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination, hadn’t monitored rooftops via drones or partnered with local law enforcement—two now-standard safety measures for outdoor events.
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Jada Chilton, who traveled from Salt Lake City to attend Tuesday’s event, said security was “insane,” with police officers “everywhere.” She said, “It makes you feel more comfortable, but it just is sad and disappointing, honestly, that we have to” be so vigilant.
Turning Point USA Returns to Utah
Reporters described the Sept. 30 Turning Point USA event at Utah State University as “largely upbeat,” with speakers vowing to continue the work of Charlie Kirk. The conservative commentator founded TPUSA in 2012, at age 18. After he was killed, his widow, Erika Kirk, was named the organization’s CEO and board chair. While speaking at Charlie’s Sept. 21 memorial service, she publicly forgave his alleged killer.
“I’m not here to eulogize Charlie Kirk,” podcaster Alex Clark told Tuesday’s crowd. “I’m here to pass the torch to every one of you. We are about to raise the most conservative Christian generation America has ever seen.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, viewed as too moderate by some conservatives, received some boos at the TPUSA event. “This was more than just an attack on Charlie Kirk,” he told attendees. “This was an attack on free speech, on America, on American ideals.” Cox added, “This idea that speech is violence is so wrong, and it goes a step worse than that because then they think violence is speech.”
The governor said Charlie Kirk “treated [people] with differing views with love, with respect, with dignity—that is not soft.” Cox encouraged attendees to maintain cross-party dialogue. “There are people in our party who don’t want us to do what Charlie did,” he said, “and we cannot fall prey to that.”
RELATED: Isabel Brown Lauds Charlie Kirk’s Courage To ‘Tell the Truth’
While the governor acknowledged that some people on the “far right” are violent, Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said violence was “coming from one side.” Bigg said of the left, “The issue is, the other side will not hear our voice.”
Hours before the TPUSA event at USU in Logan, Utah, a bomb squad detonated a suspicious device that was spotted near the Old Main building.Click to Post
