Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin, who has known Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk for years, praised him as a “lion” with “moral courage” on Newsmax Wednesday.
At approximately 2:30 pm eastern time on Wednesday, news broke of a shooting at Kirk’s event on Utah Valley University’s campus. Shortly after, Turning Point USA confirmed to Fox News that Kirk had been shot, and the university indicates that a suspect is in custody. Kirk’s condition remains unknown.
“Charlie has been a friend and mentor of mine for years. We met back in 2018 and in 2019—before I’d even graduated college—I hosted him at an event at UC [University of California] Berkeley’s campus. And even at that event, which we had lockdown security, because of so much of the violence that was plaguing our university, there was an individual arrested outside with a knife,” said Devlin.
“Charlie Kirk has withstood death threats for years, and that’s because he’s one of American conservatives’ most potent weapons,” he added.
“Charlie Kirk is a lion. He has moral courage, the kind of moral courage that Pat Buchanan talked about in his culture war speech that deters mobs and sends them on the run,” Devlin added. “And if there’s anybody who can survive something like this, who can push through something like this, it’s Charlie Kirk and all of the wonderful patriots over at Turning Point USA.”
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have asked the nation to pray for Kirk in the wake of Wednesday’s news.