Turning Point USA is warning that false or defamatory claims about its late CEO, Charlie Kirk, could carry legal consequences, as the organization weighs its response to a wave of online commentary following Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10.
Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, said this week that the group is carefully monitoring what is being said about its founder and leader. Appearing on political commentator Scott Jennings’ program, Kolvet stressed that Turning Point is not rushing to act, but is keeping its options open.
“We have all of our friends out there on social media. They’re sending all this stuff, so just trust me, we are seeing it all. We are logging it all,” Kolvet said in a statement later shared on X. “I’m not prepared to get ahead of Erika [Kirk’s widow] or the organization, but I will say that we have really good lawyers.”
Kolvet made clear that the concern stems from what he described as “bad people intentionally lying and maligning the legacy of Charlie Kirk.”
He defended Kirk’s reputation in deeply personal terms, calling him “the most decent man I have ever worked with — the most truly good and generous and loyal and full of integrity man that I have ever worked with.”
While no lawsuits have been filed, the comments underscore the tense atmosphere surrounding Kirk’s death and the sharp political divisions fueling the debate over his legacy.
Kolvet, Allies Push Back on Attacks Against Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Amid National Debate
Turning Point USA is pushing back against what it describes as dishonest efforts to tarnish the reputation of slain CEO Charlie Kirk. Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, said critics are distorting Kirk’s decades of work by cherry-picking isolated remarks to define him.
Kirk’s detractors, Kolvet argued, are “people that never knew him” who “want to take a man that spent literally years and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of hours of footage, and they’re gonna try and parse one or two things he said, uh, and act like that was somehow the definition of a man and not even give you the context by the way.”
Such tactics, he added, are “so dishonest, and so gross, because they will take .001 percent of anything he said and ignore, intentionally, the 99.999 percent of the things he did and said.” Still, Kolvet suggested those efforts are unlikely to resonate widely. “I don’t think anybody’s buying it,” he said.
The controversy comes as commentators continue to place Kirk’s killing within the broader turbulence of American political life. Writing for First Things, editor R.R. Reno argued that Kirk’s assassination arrives “at a time that America is at a crossroads,” comparing the moment to the upheaval that followed the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We are living through another revolution in American public life,” Reno wrote, contending that the multicultural, open-society consensus that has shaped U.S. politics for decades is unraveling. “A growing majority demands borders and national reconsolidation — America First. In this revolution, it’s not Southern whites who are outraged. Instead, the disbelief, anger, and bitterness are expressed by educated elites, especially Baby Boomers, who have known no other consensus than the one now losing its grip.”
Reno described political violence as a symptom of this broader struggle: “Assassinations are symptoms. They are the dark fruit of passionate conflict over the future of our nation. We should certainly do everything we can to bring civility to this conflict… But we should not temper our convictions.”
He concluded by directly affirming Kirk’s worldview. “After all, Kirk was right, and we should not be shy about saying so. As most of us feel in our bones, we are at a turning point. It’s not just a matter of economics and foreign policy. Many — and I count myself among them — don’t like the American society created by open borders, multicultural ideology, LGBT advocates, and Black Lives Matter. We want a society anchored in faith, family, and flag.”