{"id":16926,"date":"2025-12-19T03:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/maga-infighting-erupts-at-turning-point-usa-conference\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T03:46:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:46:48","slug":"maga-infighting-erupts-at-turning-point-usa-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/maga-infighting-erupts-at-turning-point-usa-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGA infighting erupts at Turning Point USA Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOENIX \u2014 Members of the MAGA faithful gathered here Thursday to kick off Turning Point USA\u2019s America Fest, the largest meeting for the organization since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot to death on a Utah college campus in September.<\/p>\n

Despite that somber backdrop, the event quickly devolved into a spectacle of MAGA infighting.<\/p>\n

Ben Shapiro, the first speaker after widow Erika Kirk, ripped into those who would take the same stage in the coming hours and days. He called out conservative commentators, blasting Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon as \u201cfrauds and grifters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conservative movement is in serious danger,\u201d Shapiro said, arguing the danger is not just on the left, but \u201cfrom charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called Bannon \u201ca PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein\u201d ahead of the imminent release of files related to the late convicted sex offender, while praising President Donald Trump and his administration’s handling of the issue. Trump pushed to stop Republicans in Congress from voting to release the files, though he signed the legislation once it was passed. Both Bannon and Trump appear in photos with Epstein that were released by House Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shapiro particularly focused on Carlson \u2014 both for elevating Owens\u2019 conspiracy theories about Kirk’s murder<\/a> and for his recent interview with far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who has repeatedly pushed antisemitic tropes. Carlson, a former Fox News host, now hosts his show on X and routinely garners millions of views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who refused to condemn Candace\u2019s truly vicious attacks \u2014 and some of them are speaking here tonight \u2014 are guilty of cowardice,\u201d Shapiro said, adding later: \u201cIf you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes \u2026 you ought to own it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the Fuentes interview and Owens\u2019 conspiracies have embroiled the party in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Shapiro called on the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative think tank whose president defended the interview, to change its tune about Carlson\u2019s elevation of Fuentes.<\/p>\n

Carlson responded with heat of his own from the stage Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat guy is pompous,\u201d Carlson said, saying he \u201claughed\u201d while watching clips of Shapiro’s speech backstage. \u201cCalls to deplatform at a Charlie Kirk event? That\u2019s hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlson went on to rail against cancel culture, and promised the crowd that he was not antisemitic. \u201cAntisemitism is not just naughty, it\u2019s immoral,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Erika Kirk addressed the MAGA movement\u2019s fractures, while casting her late husband as a rare unifier and pleading with the crowd to embrace disagreement. \u201cYou won\u2019t agree with everyone on this stage this weekend,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that’s okay. Welcome to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event wasn\u2019t entirely heated. Actor Russell Brand \u2014 who spoke between Shapiro and Carlson \u2014 focused on Christianity, while sprinkling attacks on vaccines and the pharmaceutical industry into his remarks. And earlier in the day, attendees danced to upbeat music, repeatedly chanted \u201cUSA\u201d and celebrated Trump\u2019s return to the White House at the Phoenix Convention Center, which is plastered with imagery of Charlie Kirk. More than 30,000 people gathered for the event.<\/p>\n

Kirk\u2019s influence on young people was particularly evident, with thousands of high school and college attendees, some of whom posed for photos in front of a tent that resembled the one Kirk was speaking in front of when he was shot during \u201cThe American Comeback Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erika Kirk \u2014 who now serves as Turning Point\u2019s CEO \u2014 said 80 percent of attendees had never been to America Fest before, and one-third of them were students. More than 140,000 people have submitted requests to join the organization since Kirk\u2019s death, bringing the membership to over 1 million people across 4,000 chapters at high schools and colleges, she added.<\/p>\n

While the group has welcomed speakers from across the conservative movement, it made clear choices about which politicians to welcome to the stage, providing a glimpse into how the organization hopes to shape the future of the GOP. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and GOP Rep. Mike Collins, both candidates for Senate, and gubernatorial hopefuls Andy Biggs of Arizona and Byron Donalds of Florida, were given slots on the main stage.<\/p>\n

Erika Kirk also made a point of promising to elevate Vice President JD Vance<\/a> \u2014 who will close the event on Sunday \u2014 to the White House in 2028. Vance leads early polls of the likely GOP field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to get my husband\u2019s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 Members of the MAGA faithful gathered here Thursday to kick off Turning Point USA\u2019s America Fest, the largest meeting for the organization since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot to death on a Utah college campus in September. Despite that somber backdrop, the event quickly devolved into a spectacle of MAGA infighting. Ben […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}