Members of the MAGA faithful engaged in open infighting at the first Turning Point USA AmericaFest conference since the death of founder Charlie Kirk.
Erika Kirk – Turning Point’s new CEO – tried to keep the peace by taking the stage first while pleading for unity at the event on Thursday night.
Two of the night’s headliners, however, quickly sent the event into a tailspin.
Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson both took shots at each other during their respective speeches, battling over conspiracy theories that have swirled since Kirk’s death.
Shapiro kicked things off by criticizing Carlson for hosting far-right commentator Nick Fuentes on his show in October.
He also collectively slammed Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and Steve Bannon as ‘frauds’ and ‘grifters.’ Kelly and Bannon – as well as several other prominent conservatives – are set to take the same stage later this week.
Shapiro warned ‘the conservative movement is in serious danger’ thanks to these conservative ‘charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.’
A not-present Owens was criticized for her repeated suggestions that Israel may have played a part in Kirk’s death, which, at least at first, cast a somber tone over the occasion.
But Shapiro was first to send things off the rails.
He urged the audience: ‘We have an obligation to clarity and to honesty. This means that we actually have to be clear in the language that we use. We should not traffic in generality. We should not say things like, “They shot Charlie without specifying whom we mean by they.”‘
‘The person who allegedly shot Charlie Kirk and whom all the evidence points at all of it is a gay trans-loving furry,’ he went on, referring to the 22-year-old suspect in the Kirk assassination, Tyler Robinson.
It was Carlson, though, who received the harshest treatment, as Shapiro continued to slam Owens.
‘The people who refused to condemn Candace’s truly vicious attacks – and some of them are speaking here tonight – are guilty of cowardice. Yes, cowardice,’ Shapiro said.
‘The fact that they have said nothing while Candace has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years is just as cowardly.’
Referring to Carlson, he said: ‘If you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes… The person who said that Charlie Kirk was a, quote, “idiot”… you ought to own it.’
‘There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes and indeed even chided Dinesh D’Souza for debating him.’
Carlson responded with his own barbs from the same stage.
‘That guy is pompous,’ Carlson began, panning Shapiro’s serious tone.
He said he “laughed” while watching snippets of Shapiro’s speech backstage.
‘Calls to deplatform at a Charlie Kirk event? That’s hilarious.’
Carlson also assured the crowd that he was not antisemitic after hosting Fuentes.
‘Antisemitism is not just naughty, it’s immoral,’ he announced.
He also complained about cancel culture, saying, ‘I have a right to question your motives. Actually, why can’t you answer the question? Why do you have to imply that some college kid is like some kind of Hitler-ite or something because he’s asking about an event? Like what?’.
Carlson asserted: ‘It is okay to ask questions. And I thought that was, like, the whole reason we were against the left. They’re not going to force you to get up there and make ritual denunciations.
‘Because this isn’t my religion. It’s politics.’
The tone of the summit was a far cry from that of last year’s, where both Shapiro and Carlson asserted the US was entering its ‘golden age’.
At the time, Donald Trump has just won the election, and Republicans had won both the House and Senate.
‘We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,’ Erika promised to start the event.
Days before, at a CBS News town hall held by Bari Weiss, the widow begged Owens to stop spreading conspiracy theories about her husband.
Owens, one of the most watched personalities in the world, responded to the remarks from Shapiro in a post to X Thursday night.
‘Ben only cares about Israel’s interests. So Israel is involved,’ she wrote.
Speakers set to take the stage Friday and over the weekend include Vice President Vance, Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Tulsi Gabbard and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
More than 30,000 attendees gathered for the hectic opening night.
