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Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk Confronts Student on Biden's Authoritarian Tactics and Political Prosecutions of Trump
Charlie Kirk engages in a heated exchange with a college student who questions whether Trump exhibits authoritarian tendencies. Kirk flips the script, arguing that Biden's Justice Department prosecuting Trump while he was a political opponent represents the true hallmark of authoritarianism, a practice seen in dictatorships worldwide. The student struggles to condemn Biden's actions, revealing a double standard that Kirk argues fuels America's political division. This confrontation highlights the growing concern over weaponizing the justice system against political rivals.
The exchange began when a student approached Charlie Kirk with what seemed like a straightforward challenge: identify the smallest action Trump could take that would signal authoritarian tendencies and cross a line into undemocratic behavior. The student wanted Kirk to commit to a stance he could never walk back, regardless of which president took such action.
Kirk immediately turned the question around, pointing to a concrete example from recent history rather than engaging in hypotheticals.
Using the Justice System Against Political Opponents
Kirk's answer was direct and specific: if Donald Trump did what Joe Biden did—using the Department of Justice to imprison someone he was running against—Kirk would speak out against it. He emphasized that when Biden's Justice Department attempted to put Trump in prison for what he described as "700 years," this represented exactly the kind of behavior that defines dictatorships.
"That's the thing that dictatorships are made of," Kirk stated. "And no one spoke out against it in the media. We acted as if this was normal."
Kirk laid out a principle that should transcend party lines: regardless of who is president, you should not lock up the dissident leader. Whether it's Bernie Sanders, AOC, or anyone else running for office, using the justice system to imprison political opponents damages the country's democratic foundations.
The "Lock Her Up" Deflection
The student attempted a counterargument, bringing up the "lock her up" chants directed at Hillary Clinton during Trump rallies. Kirk quickly addressed this comparison by highlighting a critical distinction: when those chants occurred in 2016, Trump supporters didn't control the Justice Department—Obama did.
"When we said lock her up, that was a chant trying to say that someone who broke the law should be held accountable," Kirk explained. "There was no Justice Department that we controlled. It was Obama."
The key difference, according to Kirk, is between citizens calling for accountability versus those in power actually weaponizing government institutions against their opponents.
The Challenge to Condemn Authoritarian Practices
Kirk repeatedly pressed the student with a simple question: Can you say that Biden hunting down Trump through the Justice Department for four years was wrong? Can you disavow that practice?
The student hesitated, eventually responding that he believed "they had genuine concerns."
This response prompted Kirk's most pointed critique: "So you're a defender of a dictatorship. Here you come up be like, 'Oh, you know, what can you say about Donald Trump being an authoritarian?' You're a defender of authoritarian practices."
The Hallmark of Authoritarianism
Kirk emphasized what he sees as the defining characteristic of authoritarian governments: "The hallmark characteristic of an authoritarian government is we are going to put the person who is not in political power while we hold political power in jail."
He drew comparisons to other countries where this practice occurs:
Brazil, where similar tactics are being used against Bolsonaro
Russia, where Putin imprisons political dissidents
China's treatment of political opponents
Kirk argued that Americans typically condemn these practices when they happen abroad, yet many refused to acknowledge the same pattern when it occurred domestically under Biden's administration.
The Uncomfortable Comparison
When Kirk stated that "Joe Biden is the same as Putin" in this specific regard—using the justice system against political opponents—the student pushed back, saying this kind of rhetoric isn't good for the country's future health.
Kirk stood by his position: "We march in the streets against Putin when he does it. And Joe Biden is the same as Putin. Yeah. In that regard. Absolutely. Yes."
Who Fuels Political Division?
As the conversation concluded, the student accused Kirk of contributing to political separation, suggesting that Kirk profits from his Trump-focused organization. The student claimed that people like Kirk are responsible for America's political divisions.
Kirk's final challenge to the student was simple: Can you agree that it is wrong to put your political opponents in jail?
The student's response remained equivocal, never providing the clear condemnation Kirk requested. This inability or unwillingness to condemn the practice—regardless of which party does it—illustrated Kirk's broader point about double standards in American political discourse.
The Principle Behind the Exchange
Throughout this confrontation, Kirk consistently returned to a fundamental principle: the justice system should not be weaponized against political opponents, regardless of party affiliation. This standard, he argued, should be universal and non-negotiable in a functioning democracy.
The exchange revealed a troubling reality: many people are willing to excuse authoritarian practices when committed by their preferred political party while condemning identical actions by their opponents. This selective outrage, Kirk suggested, represents a greater threat to democratic norms than any single politician's behavior.
The conversation ended with Kirk offering a hat to the audience, the tension dissolving into applause as the student walked away, still unable to provide the straightforward condemnation of political prosecutions that Kirk had requested.
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