Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk told Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow that his organization’s annual AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, broke records without “a single person from Fox” News at the event.
“This is a record event for you,” Marlow said of the TPUSA conference, to which Kirk replied, “It is a record event, yes, 13,000 tickets sold.”
“Your marquee speakers, many of them are not card-carrying members of the conservative movement,” Marlow continued, to which the TPUSA founder replied, “Nor should they be.”
After Marlow noted that some of the AmericaFest 2023 marquee speakers include actress Roseanne Barr, entrepreneur and best-selling author Patrick Bet-David, NBA player Jonathan Isaac, and comedian Rob Schneider, Kirk said, “Well, what’s missing? We don’t have a single person from Fox here, and in the years past, we have.”
Kirk continued:
I love Fox. They’ve been very good to me. I hope we can heal our relationship, because for whatever reason, it’s gone off the reservation. Since Tucker’s departure, I haven’t been on — and so, we had to do an event without Fox, and that was a great thing, man, because sometimes desperation is the mother of innovation, right? We kind of grew accustomed to — Jesse Watters, love him, Greg Gutfeld, love him — but that wasn’t a thing, we couldn’t do it, they’re not allowed to be here.
And so, we sat in the conference room, and said, “Well, let’s redesign the whole mantra, let’s go culture.” And, man, what we pulled off — because we have Bannon, to Gaetz, to Don Jr., to a current NBA player who’s averaging ten points a game, to Roseanne Barr, number one television program … Rob Schneider, A-list comedian, PBD [Patrick Bet-David], one of the most successful entrepreneurs, best-selling, millions of social media followers. And then you still get your red meat politics. Plus, we have 30 breakout trainings… and country music.
“That’s special,” Kirk affirmed. “And it goes to show two things: The moment is now outside of traditional politics. Because the country really is collapsing, and so an NBA player is like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to make time for this.'”
“But number two,” Kirk added, “it goes to show that Turning Point USA is now being identified as more than just, ‘Oh, it’s right wing.’ It’s like, no, actually, we’re something that people want to be associated with, that’s moving the dial.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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