Charlie Kirk’s death has prompted the circulation of the right-wing activist’s most fiery debates online, unveiling the Trump ally’s confrontational style and most controversial opinions.
The 31-year-old was fatally shot this week at a speaking event in Utah, where he was encouraging members of the campus to debate him on various political topics under a banner that read “prove me wrong.”
A manhunt continues for the person who killed the outspoken podcaster, with authorities sharing an image of a figure they are keen to identify alongside an image of the suspected weapon.
Tributes have poured in from across the political spectrum following his killing, while Trump stoked the political divide by blaming the ‘radical left’ for Kirk’s death despite not knowing the identity of the killer.
Known as a right-wing commentator who also unapologetically backed Trump’s leadership, the firebrand had also built his career on strategically debating young liberals on world views and appearing as a provocateur, catching them out in “gotcha” moments.
During some of these conversations, it also emerged that Kirk harboured some very divisive opinions on abortion, women’s rights, gun control, and race.
Here are some of his most eyebrow-raising moments.
Debate on abortion
In one viral clip that features Kirk debating a young woman on abortion rights, he argued that even victims of rape should carry pregnancies to term — even if the victim were 10 years old.
The clip highlights Kirk’s evangelical beliefs and his perspective that abortion should be banned in all cases.
“If you had a daughter and she was 10, and she got raped, and she was going to give birth, and she was going to live. Would you want her to go through that and carry her rapist’s baby?” the debater asks.
“That’s awfully graphic,” he responds to the debater, before she adds: “No, but it’s a real-life scenario that happens to many people.”
His response left the crowd stunned: “The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.”
He then goes on to try to justify his point, suggesting that an act of “good” should follow a malicious act, and that children born out of rape still get equal rights like anyone else. As Kirk refused to acknowledge the rights of the pregnant person, the debater eventually stormed away.
Another clip debating the same topic, Kirk is asked whether he’s comparing abortion to the Holocaust, and he responds: “Absolutely, I am. In fact, it is worse. It's worse.”
Tilly Middlehurst debate
One clip that went viral earlier this year occurred when Turning Point USA founder debated a young student named Tilly Middlehurst at Cambridge, who many say dismantled Kirk’s argument and won the crowd.
During the debate, Kirk suggested that women in the West were ‘miserable’ because they have been forced to suppress ‘how they are made by God’ as the pair spoke about happiness in the modern day.
He argues that women should have more traditional roles in running the home and having children, like they have done in the past, before making several other deflections to populist talking points. The Cambridge student defended her points brilliantly, consistently breaking down Kirk’s remarks with researched and backed-up arguments.
Kirk eventually tries to segue into a remark about immigration, saying: “We should shut off Muslim immigration to the UK.”
“I think that all religious fundamentalism is bad, and if you take that logic, we should also not allow evangelical Christians into the country,” she responded, to the applause of the crowd.
Cambridge University debate
Many viewers have suggested that Kirk’s debates against Cambridge students saw the provocateur finally meet his match, with the American seemingly caught out on a number of statements.
It was seemingly summarised in one student’s closing remarks following a debate on foreign policy: “You are a culture warrior,” the student said. “I believe when everything is done, Mr. Kirk, people will see you and the people you supported as corrupt, as selling the country out to the lowest bidder, and of doing irreparable damage to a country I’m sure we all deep down love.”
Kirk tried to quip back, accusing the student’s country of becoming a “third-world hellhole.”
