Reality TV personality Savannah Chrisley paid tribute to the late Charlie Kirk at a Turning Point USA campus tour stop at Ohio State University Tuesday, telling the crowd that Kirk “would have been the greatest president of our lifetime.”
“I know some of you have walked into Turning Point events since Charlie’s death and you felt lost, because I have too,” Ms. Chrisley said during the organization’s “This Is the Turning Point Tour” at Ohio State.
The conservative group launched the spring tour to honor its founder, who was assassinated last year at a Utah college event.
Turning Point USA, the conservative nonprofit organization Kirk founded, honored him through speakers at the event. Ms. Chrisley appeared before Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy addressed the crowd.
Ms. Chrisley, known for the Lifetime docuseries “The Chrisleys: Back to Reality,” recalled Kirk’s signature approach of engaging critics directly on college campuses. “Charlie was the face of Turning Point. He was the guy who walked on to a hostile campus by himself, sat on a folding chair, and said, ’Prove me wrong,’” she said. “And, now, he’s gone.”
She also invoked Kirk’s appearance on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, which took place months before his assassination.
“Different God, different family, different country, basically,” Ms. Chrisley said. “And they talked for two hours. They pushed each other. They disagreed, with respect.”
Ms. Chrisley challenged the audience to apply the same approach in their own campus lives, urging them to “find the most liberal kid on your campus and buy them a coffee.”
“Sit down, listen, ask questions, and push back. Earn their respect,” she said. “That is how we win. Not by screaming louder than them, but by being the person in the room that they simply can’t dismiss.”
The spring leg of the Turning Point USA tour includes stops at George Washington University, the University of Georgia, Ohio State University, Baylor University, and the University of Idaho.
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