Spencer Cox reflects on the haunting impact of Charlie Kirk’s assassination as Turning Point USA returns to Utah.NH
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reflected on the day Charlie Kirk was killed – telling a panel during Turning Point USA’s return to the Beehive State that the assassination of the group’s founder “changed all of us.”
“It was a political assassination, and people were afraid to say that,” Cox said from the stage of Utah State University, the very institution Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson attended for one semester.
The Republican governor recalled the moment he received a call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was already in the Situation Room mere minutes after Kirk, 31, was gunned down on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University.
“It changed all of us,” Cox said.
Cox assured that he was confident that the legal system would properly prosecute the assailant responsible for taking Kirk’s life.
“This was more than just an attack on Charlie Kirk. This was an attack on free speech, on America, on American ideals. It was treasonous.”
Alex Clark, host of TPUSA’s health and wellness podcast “Culture Apothecary,” took the stage first, but wasn’t part of the politicians’ panel and delivered an impassioned speech praising Kirk’s legacy.
She said that she wasn’t there to “eulogize” Kirk, but to feed the “fire” that he started.
Clark celebrated how Kirk transformed from an “interesting curiosity” in his late teens to a “celebrity,” “a hero.” and lastly a “martyr.”
The event went off without a hitch, even after a suspected bomb threat.
Tuesday’s modified panel of speakers also featured Sen. Mike Lee–who submitted a pre-recorded speech–Rep. Andy Biggs and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
The quad of southwestern conservatives accompanied Alex Clark, the host of TPUSA’s health and wellness podcast “Culture Apothecary.”
Around 2:45 p.m. local time, just four hours ahead of the panel, one of the school’s administration buildings was evacuated “out of an abundance of caution” after a suspicious package was reported.
The package was “deemed to be a non-explosive device” and destroyed by the bomb squad that was already on campus as part of the heightened security presence ahead of the TPUSA event, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Swaths of armed law enforcement were on the USU campus Tuesday. The debate, like all other TPUSA events held since Kirk’s assassination, was moved indoors to effectively screen ticketed attendees.
Kirk has loomed over the revamped tour with each host finding their own way to honor the slain pundit.
His widowed wife, Erika, insisted during a rare appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show” that “nothing is changing” as those left to carry on his work are following “blueprints” and “marching orders” laid out.
“My husband’s voice will live on. The show will go on,” she said.
“We have decades’ worth of my husband’s voice. We have unused material from speeches that he’s had that no one has heard yet,” she added.
At the tour’s second event held at the University of Minnesota last week, political commentator Michael Knowles left an empty chair on stage in Kirk’s place – which was repeated at Virginia Tech and USU.
Knowles spent the bulk of the event mourning the nonprofit’s charismatic founder and offering up a handful of religiously charged reflections on Kirk’s death.
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Towards the end, Knowles pivoted to Kirk’s typical debate format with the audience.
After its stop in Minnesota, TPUSA traveled to Virginia Tech where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared alongside Megyn Kelly.
Youngkin praised Erika for her “courage” and hoped that the audience would help take up Kirk’s mantle.
“The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie. All of you,” Youngkin said.
Kelly, who agreed to be part of the tour months ahead of Kirk’s death, said that it was important to carry on and “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe.”
TPUSA’s next stop will be at Montana State University on Oct. 7 featuring former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and the state’s Gov. Greg Gianforte.
