Andrew Kolvet, executive producer for The Charlie Kirk Show, told Breitbart News that the right-on-right debate the public is now seeing was “inevitable.”
“A lot of people have made the observation that Charlie was sort of holding back some of these fights, and he was keeping them from happening or otherwise holding the coalition together, and I definitely think that that’s directionally true,” Kolvet said after being asked about recent conservative infighting.
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“But as somebody that was having these conversations with Charlie in private, we could see this stuff coming for years,” Kolvet, who sat down with Breitbart News during Turning Point USA’s 2025 AmericaFest conference last week, continued.
“And I think it’s probably more true to say that when Charlie was assassinated, maybe it accelerated some of these debates, but they were, I think, inevitable,” the Turning Point USA spokesman added.
Kolvet cited, “The conversation about Israel, the conversation about foreign policy in general, how and when we use the United States military, immigration,” saying, “These were things that were going to happen. And, in some ways, I’m glad we’re having them.”
“Because if you were inside of this, you could see these fissures and these dividing lines coming a mile away,” he added.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Kolvet said that lawmakers should stop acting like online influencers.
“Stop trying to be influencers. Stop trying to be social media provocateurs,” Kolvet advised lawmakers. “Do what you need to do, what we elected you to do.”
“And I think we need to, as a movement, put them back in their proper boxes now,” he added.
Notably, tens of thousands of AmericaFest attendees were essentially held as a captive audience to several prominent conservative figures airing their dirty laundry about one another onstage in Phoenix, Arizona.
The public display of the conservative movement’s infighting began on the first day of the event, when Ben Shapiro took to the stage to call out “some” of the speakers featured at AmericaFest, declaring them “guilty of cowardice” for refusing “to condemn Candace’s truly vicious attacks” against Erika Kirk and Turning Point USA.
A few hours after Shapiro left the stage, Tucker Carlson appeared before AmericaFest attendees and told his audience that he “laughed that kind of bitter, sardonic laugh” upon hearing “the first part of the program.”
Candace Owens — who was not present at AmericaFest, but responded to Shapiro remotely on her podcast — declared, “Fuck you and the midget horse that you rode in on.”
The following day, Steve Bannon addressed event attendees, telling his audience that Shapiro “is like a cancer” who “tried to take over” Breitbart News and David Horowitz, before predicting that, at some point, he will “make a move” on Turning Point USA as well, “because he’s always been envious of Charlie Kirk.”
Megyn Kelly also had something to say on the matter after Bannon left the stage, telling the AmericaFest audience that she helped make Shapiro “a star,” but now he has been “losing subscribers, a lot,” adding, “I don’t think we are friends anymore.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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