Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder and Executive Director Charlie Kirk joined Breitbart News Editor in Chief Alex Marlow on Wednesday to announce that Breitbart News and TPUSA will team up for a new weekly campus segment on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily. Kirk said the weekly segments will give listeners the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts, “straight from the students,” about “the culture war that is happening on our college campuses.”
“We’re going to have, at least once a week, student chapter leaders come on the show and talk about some of their experiences — what’s happening on the ground,” Charlie Kirk told Breitbart News Daily Host Alex Marlow on Wednesday morning. Marlow called TPUSA “the most important right-of-center group on campuses around the country,” making the organization Breitbart News’ perfect partner to gain true insight into what is happening to conservatives at America’s college and universities today.
Kirk agreed with Marlow’s assessment of the importance of shining a light on intolerance of conservatives on campus, pointing out that Breitbart News has taken a leading position in reporting on the campus culture war, often covering the experiences of TPUSA’s student members.
“So one example, Alex, would be our Turning Point USA president and chapter leader Peyton, whose door got fired bombed,” continued Kirk, “This is at Andrew Breitbart’s Alma mater, actually, Tulane University — and Breitbart [News] did such a beautiful job of covering this.”
Kirk was referring to an incident at Tulane University in which three students were arrested for arson after setting the TPUSA chapter president’s dorm room door ablaze.
“I do have to say, the UC Berkeley story in particular, Breitbart really helped keep the drumbeat going — remember, it took them a while to arrest that thug that punched Hayden Williams in the face,” added Kirk as he recalled another recent incident occurring on the campus of UC Berkeley, in which a conservative activist training TPUSA student members was punched multiple times in the face. This incident in part spurred President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on restoring free speech to campuses.
The TPUSA founder then went on to talk about how Andrew Breitbart had inspired him, especially on the topic of higher education and the “cultural war” encompassing these institutions.
“You really look at the reason why [Andrew] became one of the most effective — if not the most effective — culture warrior of our generation, it’s because of universities,” said Kirk, adding that Andrew Breitbart had eventually realized that in academia, there was “an effort to try to turn [Andrew] into a leftist — into an anti-American.”
Andrew always talked about the importance of counter culture — rebellion attitude — and he eluded to this in his book, Righteous Indignation — that the left has dominated so much culture, for so long, that being a conservative is now the culturally rebellious thing to be. No one wants to be a conformist when you’re young, think about it, who wants to be the guy that thinks like everyone else does? Well, that’s a liberal. You are the most conformist, least interesting person in the world if you’re a liberal or a leftist on a college campus. If you are conservative and you can defend your beliefs — all of the sudden, you’re very interesting, and you’re considered to be a rebel. And I see that happening on the campuses.
Kirk went on to say that the leftist “religious dogma” that has a stranglehold on Hollywood and the mainstream media today, was taught in universities. “This is the predominant viewpoint, the ivory tower, wise men of Washington, elitist viewpoint,” said Kirk, “Andrew Breitbart talked about this, it comes from our universities.”
“Breitbart [News] has been beating this drum for a long time,” added Kirk, “and I think there’s a lot of people that are realizing, ‘Wait a second, how do you get openly socialist members of Congress?’ The country just does not wake up and, out of nowhere, say ‘Oh, that’s what I want.'”
“It is taught,” affirmed the TPUSA founder.
“Where did the copywriters of the Jimmy Fallon show go to school? Where did the copywriters of the Kimmel show go to school?” continued Kirk, “They went to these universities and that’s where they got indoctrinated — So, you have to bring the battle to that frontier, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Turning Point USA’s new segment with Alex Marlow on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily will broadcast every Wednesday, beginning on April 17 at 8:00 a.m. EST.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.