Viral Claims About Charlie Kirk’s Words

Since the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, social media users have shared posts showing, quoting or paraphrasing remarks the posts attribute to the conservative activist. Many readers have asked us to provide the facts on whether Kirk, the founder of the youth political group Turning Point USA, made several of these comments.

We’ll review some of the statements that our readers asked about and correct a viral social media post that got what Kirk said wrong.

While he did say many of the statements, some have been misrepresented or not presented with full context.

False Claim of an Asian Slur​

A popular post on X incorrectly claimed that Kirk used a slur for Asian people.

“That time Charlie Kirk called an Asian woman in the audience ‘c—-’ multiple times,” the post reads, spelling out the slur in full, and accompanied by a montage video from TikTok. “He made millions off of his racism and sexism.”

The video, however, does not show Kirk using the slur. Rather, as an X Community Note explains, Kirk was shouting at Cenk Uygur, a co-host of the Young Turks, a progressive online news show, and using his first name. The two men were at Politicon, an annual nonpartisan political convention, in October 2018.

“I live like a capitalist every single day, Cenk!” Kirk said angrily to Uygur, after Uygur interrupted a debate Kirk was having with the Young Turks’ Hasan Piker about what political views young people should have. “Come on, Cenk, let’s go,” he said later.

Continued below.