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Charlie Kirk, who died after being shot during an appearance at Utah Valley University Wednesday, had a long history of contentious views and often courted controversy with statements that seemed designed to provoke those who disagreed with him.
A right-wing activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, Kirk also helped mobilize young Trump voters and was well known for his"Prove Me Wrong" videos, in which he would face off against students on college campuses across the United States to debate various topics.
Kirk was also a prominent radio host and podcaster who frequently used his platforms to rail against liberal viewpoints on subjects as varied as gun control, climate change, the civil rights movement and 2SLGBTQ+ issues.
Here are a few of his most controversial takes.
Gun control
A couple of years ago, Kirk made a comment about some gun deaths in the U.S. being"worth it" to ensure the continued existence of the second amendment to the U.S. constitution, which is the right to keep and bear arms.
"It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights," he said during an April 5, 2023, appearance at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church."That is a prudent deal."
WATCH | Breaking down the political influence of Charlie Kirk:
Why Charlie Kirk matters
September 11Moments before Kirk was shot on Wednesday, numerous livestreams of the event showed an audience member asking him how many mass shooters in the last 10 years have been transgender Americans.
"Too many," Kirk responded.
The person said five was the number, then asked Kirk if he knew how many mass shooters in total America had seen in the last 10 years."Counting or not counting gang violence?" Kirk replied.
Seconds later, a loud crack that sounded like a gunshot rang out and Kirk was seen briefly moving his hand to his neck before falling from his chair as attendees began to run.
Civil rights
At a December 2023 political conference hosted by his Turning Points USA group, Wired magazine reported that Kirk decried not only Martin Luther King Jr., calling the civil rights leader"awful" and "not a good person," but also the Civil Rights Act of 1965 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex and national origin, and prohibited segregation.
"I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I've thought about it," Kirk said."We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s."
Kirk argued the statute had brought about what he said was a "permanent" bureaucracy meant to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Abortion
Last year, for the social media program Surrounded, Kirk faced off against 25 liberal college students to defend his viewpoints, which included the belief that abortion is murder and should be illegal, including in cases of rape.
"It is a growing consensus in the pro-life world that abortion is never medically necessary," he told one female student, who then asked, if someone raped his hypothetical 10-year-old daughter, would he want the child to be born.
"The answer is, yes, the baby would be delivered," he said.
He said having an abortion in that situation would be pandering to evil.
"Wouldn't it be a better story to say something evil happened and we do something good in the face of evil, instead of saying we're going to do evil?"
Women and 'fertility collapse'
In addition to his views on abortion, Kirk also frequently spoke about what he called a"fertility collapse" in the West.
"Young women, they don't value having children," he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham."Trump voters, young men, they want family, children and legacy. Young women who voted for Kamala Harris, they want careerism, consumerism and loneliness."
When pop star Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce announced their engagement on Aug. 26, Kirk was quick to discuss it on his podcast, suggesting that getting married and having"a ton of children" would "stop this kind of liberal endorsing Joe Biden nonsense."
He said he hoped marriage would make Swift more conservative and encouraged her to "Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge."
"I can't wait to go to a Taylor Kelce concert," he said."You've got to change your name. If not, you don't really mean it."
His comments garnered a strong reaction from Swift's fans, many of whom responded to what they said was a misogynistic rant on social media.
"Change her name? The name that made her a billion? Is he for real," asked one Instagram user. Another responded with lyrics from a Swift song: "He needs to calm down, he's being too loud."
"Charlie could learn a thing or two about positive masculinity from Travis," said one fan.
Gaza
Kirk also garnered backlash for his support to Israel, backing its nearly two-year campaign in Gaza. He was described by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as a"lion-hearted friend of Israel."
Netanyahu said he spoke to him two weeks ago and invited him to visit Israel.
"[Kirk] fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization," Netanyahu said. "His boundless pride in America and his valiant belief in free speech will leave a lasting impact."
On July 28, Kirk posted a video on X saying"No, Israel is not starving Gazans," amid calls from humanitarian organizations to avert further starvation and famine in the region.
Conspiracy theories
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kirk frequently shared conspiracy theories on social media and was briefly banned from the social media platform then known as Twitter for spreading misinformation.
In March 2020, he posted about the"China virus" — a phrase that was quickly adopted by U.S. President Donald Trump, then in his first term. In December that year, the year-end gala for Kirk's Turning Point USA group went ahead in Florida despite the state's COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
He also notably compared pandemic vaccine requirements to apartheid during a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson.
In a February 2024 , Kirk referred to the"great replacement" conspiracy theory (which has been widely debunked), suggesting undocumented immigrants are coming to the U.S. to replace white Americans.
Empathy and debate
On the Oct. 12, 2022, episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk discussed how former U.S. president Bill Clinton used empathy and sympathy as a political strategy. In an aside, Kirk went off on the term empathy.
"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage."
Admirers have stressed that, for all of Kirk's confrontational rhetoric, he relished debate and the free exchange of ideas.
So it was perhaps not a surprise when he chose to celebrate a recent skewering by Comedy Central's South Park as vindication of"our viral cultural domination."
"We need to have a good spirit about being made fun of," he said on YouTube of the Aug. 6 episode that featured"Prove Me Wrong" style debates with the show's foul-mouthed character Eric Cartman styled as Kirk.
WATCH | Kirk's reaction to South Park episode:
