Megyn Kelly slams student claiming Trump’s 'rhetoric' caused Charlie Kirk’s death: 'Blatant lie'

BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA: Journalist Megyn Kelly went toe-to-toe with a college student at a Turning Point USA debate on Wednesday after the young man blamed President Donald Trump’s "rhetoric" for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

It all started when a student stepped up to the mic and questioned Kelly.

“I want to know why you support a president who contributes to the rhetoric that got your friend Charlie killed,” he asked. “You saw his rally recently, he said, ‘I hate my enemies.’ Stephen Miller said similar things. How can you support him when he contributed to what got Charlie killed?”

Kelly immediately shot back, “What you said is not true.”

But the student doubled down. “70% of political violence is committed by Republicans!" he retorted. "Look it up! DOJ just pulled it! The DOJ just pulled it from their website!”

Megyn Kelly fires back at questioning studenty

Kelly refused to let the accusation hang in the air.

“First of all, let me take on the first premise of your question, that it was President Trump’s rhetoric that led to an assassin killing our friend Charlie Kirk. That’s a blatant lie,” she said, before branding the claim “defamatory” and “inappropriate in this setting.”

“That’s not what I said," the student shot back.

“Yes, it is," Kelly said.

“No, I said he contributed to the political atmosphere, the tension," the student responded.

“Well, then you have no point. Then your point is utterly empty," Kelly told him. "Contributing to the atmosphere? No, let’s just make clear. Let’s just make clear. This guy was motivated by leftist ideology. We know it from the bullet casings, we know it from the Utah governor, we know it from his own mother. Yes, we do! Let’s be really clear on that.”

The student wouldn’t let it go.

“Let’s say this guy’s a leftist, even if that’s true, does that make it okay for the sitting president of the United States to incite violence against liberals?” he asked.

Kelly snapped back, “The president of the United States has not incited violence against liberals. The president of the United States made a joke at the Charlie Kirk memorial, which was funny and self-deprecating. It was on the heels of Erika Kirk saying she, in an extraordinary moment, forgave her husband’s killer. Let me finish. And then President Trump got up and, making a joke, playing off what Erika said, he said, ‘We disagree. I need to do better, Erika’s going to try to convince me, but I’m in a different place,’ and that’s completely normal for a politician to be thinking about his political fights. And by the way, Trump has every right to loathe his enemies. They tried to put him in jail for the rest of his life.”

The student yelled back, “Rightfully so! He’s a criminal!”

When Kelly asked him to explain himself further, the student quickly bowed out with, “Thanks for your time,” and walked off.

Carrying forward Charlie Kirk's legacy

Kelly wasn’t the only one on stage. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin also joined her at the event, stepping in for Charlie Kirk, who had been slated to headline before his murder.

Addressing the crowd, Youngkin said that a sniper’s bullet tried “to silence all of us, but you see the exact opposite is happening.”

“There is a revival spreading across this great nation, a revival spreading across this great nation that is spreading out while it points up to who’s in charge. This is so awesome,” he added.

Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was gunned down during a debate at Utah Valley University just weeks earlier.

After her husband’s death, Erika Kirk made clear she wasn’t letting his movement fade. She vowed that his planned tour would continue, with guest speakers like Kelly filling in across campuses nationwide.

“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die. It won't, I refuse to let that happen," she promised in her first public statement. "All of us will refuse to let that happen,” she declared. “No one will ever forget my husband's name, and I will make sure of it.”

“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry," she added, fighting back tears.