Success often breeds controversy, or at least that’s the case for Turning Point USA — a conservative nonprofit with a mission to identify, empower, and organize students in high school and on college campuses in all 50 states. The powerhouse youth organization, started just six years ago by its founder Charlie Kirk, has grown from a teenager’s idea facilitated in an Illinois garage to a massive youth movement, boasting thousands of members and heralded by the president of the United States. It has also been accused of racism, lying to donors, and now disrespect for victims of sexual assault in the Me Too movement.
As the youth organization geared up for their Student Activism Summit in December 2017, the New Yorker ran a piece alleging racism and campaign fraud. Now, as Turning Point USA is finishing up their Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas, activists are defecting over allegations of sexual assault taking place at Turning Point USA conferences as well as recent controversial remarks made about the #MeToo movement from Candace Owens, the organization’s spokeswoman and communications director.
The entire premise of #metoo is that women are stupid, weak & inconsequential.
Too stupid to know what men might want if you come to their hotel room late at night.
Too weak to turn around and tell someone not to touch your ass again.
Too inconsequential to realize this.— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 11, 2018
Red Alert Politics sat down with both Kirk and Owens to “clear the air” and discuss the recent controversy surrounding the organization.
“There’s a certain type of apology we are happy to issue. We apologize that the misperception hurt you. The intention was never to hurt you,” Kirk stated unequivocally.
Owens was not as quick to concede, stating Kirk’s apology was a “slippery slope.” She believes that her comments about the #MeToo movement are equivalent to what she’s said about Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, two groups she feels she does not owe an apology.
“Apologize for what? But I’m serious. What did they say they would appreciate an apology for?” she asked at the beginning of the interview. “The apology thing doesn’t gel well in my soul.”
She continued, “You have to understand the unique position that I’m in. I have gone after Black Lives Matter and how their movement has been hijacked, and taken so much heat from black people who saw a home inside of that movement and felt their voices were finally being heard. I have never backed down, and I have never apologized. And now that we’re dealing with a different demographic within the Me Too movement – consisting of primarily younger, white women – I’m being demanded to apologize when I’ve said the same exact things about Black Lives Matter. The movement has been hijacked, politicized, and is no longer rooted in what it was perhaps started for.”
Kirk chimed in to offer “texture,” but Owens wanted to finish her thought.
“There’s something wrong for me to issue an apology to one [the #MeToo movement] and not the other [Black Lives Matter],” Owens explained. “I could issue an apology to Black Lives Matter and say ‘I’m sorry about the misperception’ … but I believe the #MeToo movement has become divisionary between man and woman. I speak out against division.”
Owens claims she has remained ideologically consistent and, for that matter, victorious in all of her battles with the mob.
“I have not changed here. I don’t like when people use victimhood to extract emotion and politicize things. It’s the Left’s number one tactic, and I speak out every time I see it.”
After some time, Owens clarified her original tweet, which sent shockwaves through the young conservative movement.
“You can support black lives and not support Black Lives Matter. You can support rape victims and not support #MeToo. You can be against children getting gunned down and not support March for Our Lives,” Owens stated in a cadence. “I’m about individualism because if you’re an individual who lives through terrible things… and you don’t see yourself as a hashtag or a movement, but as an individual who is able to become the victor of all of your experiences, then you will not be able to fall victim to people who pretend to care about what you lived through but have nefarious intentions in mind.”
Kirk then chimed in, explaining that their stance against mob mentality, such as the #MeToo movement, comes from a place of compassion, not ignorance as some on Twitter have suggested.
“I was so disappointed to see some of the responses from our Turning Point people who should know better that Candace would never, ever go after sexual assault victims. They should understand she was going after a mob movement that was cheapening true evil. She and I, of course, 100 percent stand with sexual assault victims and rape survivors. 100 percent,” Kirk stated.
Speaking directly to victims of sexual assault, Kirk said, “We have compassion for you. We stand by you. Every rapist should be in prison and should never see the light of day again. We believe in aggressive justice more than the Left ever will.”
Regarding allegations of inappropriate behavior at Turning Point’s own conferences, Kirk admitted, “We’ve kicked men out of events for promiscuous and nefarious behavior when it is presented to us from female students” and added that claims that they don’t take it seriously or handle it appropriately are “fallacious lies, slanderous.”
Kirk went on to explain a procedure which includes giving victims the option to involve the police and call their parents, as well as kicking perpetrators out of events.
“We have never not dealt with an issue… I get very passionate about this because the implication is somehow I’ve swept this stuff under the rug. That’s bullshit,” said Kirk.
He went on to describe how he has followed up with those who have complained of mismanagement in this area. He says those who continue to complain aren’t willing to give any specific details, such as a staff member who dropped the ball or brushed off the situation.
Kirk does believe that young conservatives, including he and Owens, can learn from it all.
“A civil way to handle this is clarification. When an ally says something you don’t understand or disagree with, you ask for clarification. Why? Because allies should be innocent until proven guilty, or given the benefit of the doubt, you can use any cliche you want,” he said. “This is important… we want to take the high road. We will never question the character or motivations of people that go after us. We believe in free speech, free dialogue, discussion, ideas — we just don’t think publicly is the best way to do that. We wish it had been done privately and politely. Privately and politely.”
Like President Trump has done with Kim Jong Un, Kirk and Owens recognize that you can make peace with just about anybody.
The duo concluded by stating that if they had gone after sexual assault survivors or rape survivors, “then we’d have a big problem.”
“That’s not a platform that Turning Point USA would ever stand on,” Owens told Red Alert Politics.
She says she’ll “do it better next time,” noting that if she has “something to say, do it in long-form. If you only have 240 characters, people are going to slice it up and put it in their own meaning.”
“It’s hard, and I’ve got to get better…” Owens admitted.
Now the duo focuses on being “better tomorrow than [they] were today,” a mantra Kirk wears on his wrist and tells himself daily.
“I wear this and you never see me without it. I say it every day, ‘be better.’ And that’s what we’re doing.”
