Charlie Kirk and Vivek Ramaswamy recently took the stage in downtown Atlanta, a highly liberal setting for two famous conservatives to speak with college students.
Within minutes, Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who sought the Republican presidential nomination this year, and Kirk, the professional provocateur, were debating with Georgia State University undergraduates about their presidential election choices on November 5.
“What is Kamala Harris’ greatest accomplishment?” Kirk bluntly questioned two students who accused Donald Trump of being “un-American” and trying to suspend the Constitution.
Kirk, 31, has played an outsized role in this year’s election, utilizing his online presence and the group he created, Turning Point Action, to establish himself as one of the country’s most famous conservatives and a key member of Trump’s campaign. The former president has focused on attracting younger guys, known as the “bro vote,” using podcasts, social media, and influencers like Kirk.
Kirk will host a rally for Trump on Wednesday in Duluth, Georgia, which is part of the large section of metro Atlanta where Trump underperformed in his reelection campaign four years ago, losing to Democrat Joe Biden. Kirk and Trump are slated to attend at a rally in Las Vegas on Thursday evening.
Harris will have a town hall in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, which will be carried live on CNN.
The gathering in Atlanta on Monday was part of the “You’re Being Brainwashed Tour,” which will make stops on college campuses across the swing states that will decide the presidential election.
Kirk’s Turning Point is pitching state and local Republican politicians on its voter turnout efforts in Arizona, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Critics have questioned the group’s claims and its use of an app with inadequate safeguards to protect voters’ personal information. A recording of one meeting acquired by The Associated Press shows a group’s operator declaring, “We now are an official arm of the Trump campaign.”
More than the fieldwork, Kirk’s “Brainwashed” tour has been his most conspicuous presence in the campaign’s final months.
Trump and his advisers say that his populist nationalism appeals to younger voters dissatisfied with an inflated economy and soaring house costs.
At Georgia State, Kirk drew a large crowd of young males sporting Trump’s iconic “Make America Great Again” hats.
“I’m definitely voting for Trump because he reflects my values as a conservative and as a Christian more than Ms. Harris,” Jean Pierre, 25, told me. He praised people like Kirk and Candace Owens with “helping me recognize I’d always been a conservative.”
However, Pierre appeared to be heavily outnumbered in the crowd by students who were there to oppose the host or simply to observe the heated confrontations that erupted.
When Turning Point officials strolled through the crowd handing out free “MAGA” caps, some students declined, while others wore them and mocked the idea. One kid wandered around urgently attempting to give it away, saying, “Please, will some straight white male take this hat!”
Jason Evans and Tyler Hill appeared dressed in “White Dudes for Harris” garb.
“I definitely have some questions for Charlie and Vivek,” said Evans, a student from New York, though he never had the opportunity to ask them.
Hill stated: “I’m just here for the show.”
Ramaswamy repeated some of the pitches he used during his own campaign. He accused the Biden administration of stifling online expression. He supported Trump’s protectionism, explaining to pupils that China is the primary supplier of the United States military.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he replied.
Kirk looked into false allegations and conspiracy ideas.
He echoed Trump’s misstatement that Harris was solely responsible for immigration policy, claiming that the vice president made decisions on the US pullout from Afghanistan and how the US responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kirk repeated the myth that 325,000 children were “lost” at the border during Biden’s tenure.
Kirk also defended Trump supporters who invaded the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Congress convened to declare Biden’s victory.
Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer inside the Capitol, was unarmed, Kirk said. He rhetorically questioned whether the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man shot by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020, was acceptable. That elicited jeers and quite a few expletives.
Kirk, who is white, went on to remark, “Black people in America are getting put last, which seems to be a theme the last 60 years when Democrats are in charge.”
The audience, which represented the racial and ethnic diversity of Georgia State’s student body, remained mostly silent. Turning Point employees and local conservatives cheered.
Kirk received the loudest applause, at least from many students wearing red hats, when he cited from the New Testament. “We’re all sinners,” he declared. “We all fall short of the glory of God.”