Charlie Kirk?!
Kirk promotes the
Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, and has described universities as "islands of
totalitarianism."
[4][38][39]
In a 2015 speech at the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, Kirk stated that he had applied to the
United States Military Academy in
West Point, New York, and was not accepted.
[40] He said that "the slot he considered his went to 'a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion'" whose test scores he claimed he knew.
[41] He told
The New Yorker in 2017 that he was being sarcastic when he said it.
[41] He told the
Chicago Tribune in 2018 that "he was just repeating something he'd been told,"
[9][42] while at a
New Hampshire Turning Point event featuring
Rand Paul in October 2019 he claimed that he never said it.
[42]
On July 7, 2018, Kirk falsely claimed on social media that
Justice Department statistics showed an increase in
human trafficking arrests from 1,952 in the year 2016 to 6,087 in the first half of 2018. He deleted the tweet without an explanation the next day, after a fact-checker had pointed out that the false 2018 number had originated on conspiracy site
8chan.
[43][44]
In December 2018, Kirk falsely claimed that protesters in the French
yellow vests movement chanted "We want Trump." These false claims were later repeated by President Trump himself.
[45]
In defending the
Trump administration's response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Kirk falsely stated that during the
H1N1 swine flu pandemic it "took
President Barack Obama 'millions infected and over 1,000 deaths'" to declare a public health emergency.
[46][47]
Kirk has spread falsehoods about voter fraud
[48][49] and the COVID-19 pandemic.
[50] According to
Forbes, Kirk is known for "his repudiation of liberal college education and embrace of pro-Trump conspiracy theories."
[50]
