BLACKSBURG, VA – Megyn Kelly got into a heated exchange with a student during her first time hosting a Turning Point USA campus tour. The political commentator and podcast host, gave a speech and answered questions in Virginia Tech’s Burruss Hall during the evening program. This is the second campus event since Turning Point CEO, Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Kelly opened her speech by telling the students, Charlie Kirk had been really looking forward to coming to this event.
“We settled on Virginia Tech a while ago, and he was so looking forward to this,” Kelly said. “I was just talking to Erica, and she wanted to tell me that, number one, wanted me to tell you he’s still looking forward to this, she wanted to be here with you, and that she is so proud of you for showing up. And she also wanted me to tell you that she’s got your back. “
Kelly spent about an hour answering questions from students. In a particularly heated exchange, a student came up and asked how Kelly could support a president “who contributes to the rhetoric that got your friend, Charlie, killed.”
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“Assumes facts, not in evidence,” Kelly responded. “What you said is not true.”
“70% of political violence is committed by Republicans,” the student said as the whole auditorium erupted.
“Look it up,” the student began screaming. “The DOJ just pulled it. The DOJ just pulled the study from their website because they’re delusional.”
“That’s not true,” Kelly shakes her head. “Once you pull the crazies out of there, it is overwhelmingly left wing violence.”
“Google it,” The student says while shouting out to the crowd. “Every single person in the audience Google it right now.”
“You know, this is how we get here,” Kelly sighs. “So first of all, let me take on the first part of the premise of your question, that it was President Trump’s rhetoric that led to an assassin killing our friend, Charlie Kirk. That’s a blatant lie. It’s a defamatory blaspheme, and it’s inappropriate in the setting.”
“That’s not what I said,” the student shot back. “I said he contributed to the political atmosphere.”
“Let’s just make clear, this guy was motivated by leftist ideology,” Kelly says, cutting him off to cheers in the audience. “We know it from the bullet casings. We know it from the Utah governor. We know it from his own brother. Let’s be really clear on that.”
“Let’s say this guy’s a leftist, even if that’s true,” he screams into the microphone. “Does that make it okay for the sitting President of the United States to incite violence against liberals?”
“The President of the United States made a joke at the Charlie Kirk Memorial, which was funny and self-deprecating,” Kelly said. “It was on the heels of Erica Kirk saying she, in an extraordinary moment, forgave her husband’s killer.”
Kelly went on to defend President Donald Trump’s comments from Sunday’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona saying he has every right to hate his enemies. When Kelly asked for the student to respond he simply replied, “Thank you for your time.”
Virginia Tech is unfortunately all too familiar with violence on campus as 32 professors and students were killed in a mass shooting, on April 16, 2007.
Washington Examiner asked students if Kirk’s assassination on a college campus made them nervous to attend this event.
“Yeah, it does cause some fear,” Cody Mitchell said. He and his friends came from nearby Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia to attend the event.
“If that could happen at Utah Valley University, it could happen anywhere.” Mitchell said. “The shooting at Virginia Tech, and we saw it a few years ago at Bridgewater College, just up the road. So, it does make you fearful, but at the end of the day, would you rather live your life in fear, hiding your beliefs, or would you rather live loudly for what you believe?”
“No, not really nervous,” Daniel Rhodes, a Virginia Tech student from Leesburg, Virginia, said. “I expect there would be security. It’s inside and I don’t expect there to be anything. I’m not really nervous about it.”
The “Prove Me Wrong” event that was supposed to take place during the day on the drill field was cancelled after Kirk was murdered. While students were upset the event had to be scrapped, they said it would be hard to fill Kirk’s shoes.
“Charlie Kirk is unique,” Virginia Tech student, Daniel Rhodes, said. “I don’t know how many people would be able to fill in for him and give the same level of passion for what he does.”
Virginia Tech student Eli Bynaker of Marshall, Virginia felt Mrs. Erika Kirk could possibly fill in under the debate tent.
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“I’d say first off, his wife,” Bynaker said. “But I know that probably would be tough for her to do, but I think that would be cool too.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) also spoke at the event and announced he would make a $100,000 donation to Turning Point USA to support new chapters all over the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Turning Point’s next campus event is on September 30 at Utah State. There are at least nine more campus events planned across the country with special guest speakers such as Vivek Ramaswamy, Tucker Carlson, and Rob Schneider.
