Officer Tatum Defends Charlie Kirk and Rob Smith Against Critics After Turning Point USA Culture War Event
Enjoying this? Share it with someone who needs to see it.
Up Next
Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk Confront Krystal Ball Over Race-Baiting Interview on Young Black Conservative Event
10:40
Officer Tatum Honors Charlie Kirk's Legacy and Calls Young Americans to Rise Up and Lead
16:43
Brandon Tatum Interviews Charlie Kirk on Masculine Leadership and the Conservative Movement at AmericaFest
14:53
Officer Tatum Defends Charlie Kirk and Rob Smith Against Critics After Turning Point USA Culture War Event
Officer Tatum addresses the controversy surrounding Charlie Kirk and Rob Smith at a Turning Point USA culture war event at Ohio University. He distinguishes between identity politics used by the left and identifying with politics on the right, defending Kirk's platform that includes diverse conservative voices. Tatum argues that conservatives need to focus on shared constitutional values like freedom of speech, lower taxes, and minimal government rather than dividing over personal matters. He emphasizes that Charlie Kirk, at 25, has built one of the most impactful conservative movements with over 1,400 university chapters, and that Rob Smith's perspective as a gay conservative veteran deserves to be heard alongside other voices in the broader conservative movement.
The Difference Between Identity Politics and Identifying With Politics
Officer Tatum opens by addressing criticism of a Turning Point USA culture war event featuring Charlie Kirk and Rob Smith at Ohio University. He makes a critical distinction: while the left uses identity politics to divide people into groups with conflicting narratives, conservatives use diverse voices to bring people together under shared American values.
According to Tatum, the left tells different groups different stories about America and what they can accomplish, then pits those groups against each other. The conservative approach, he argues, is fundamentally different. When a black conservative speaks to the black community, or a gay conservative speaks to the LGBT community, the goal is to bring those individuals out of their separate groups and into a unified understanding of American principles.
Tatum explains that people naturally identify better with those who share similar backgrounds or experiences. This isn't about division—it's about effective communication. The goal is to help people understand conservative values and join together as American citizens pursuing the same mission, not to keep them separated into competing factions.
Charlie Kirk's Accomplishments Deserve Respect
Before addressing the specific controversy, Tatum defends Charlie Kirk's credentials and accomplishments. He points out that Kirk, at only 25 years old, has accomplished more than many people in their 60s and 70s. Turning Point USA has expanded to over 1,400 universities with thousands of student chapters across the country, and has even established a presence in the United Kingdom.
Tatum, who formerly worked for Turning Point USA and continues to support the organization, describes Kirk as an absolutely brilliant young man making one of the largest impacts in the conservative movement. He challenges critics to look in the mirror and ask what they have accomplished before running their mouths to bash Charlie Kirk.
The culture war events put on by Turning Point USA serve an important purpose, Tatum argues. They address tough cultural issues from a conservative perspective, providing college students with information and viewpoints they aren't getting anywhere else on campus, where leftist perspectives dominate.
Rob Smith: A Conservative Voice That Happens to Be Gay
Tatum reveals that he knows Rob Smith very well and considers him to be more conservative than most people watching his video. He estimates that Smith is 99.999% aligned with conservative values—the only area of disagreement being gay marriage, which Tatum opposes based on his Christian beliefs. He also believes God wants people delivered from gay relationships, but emphasizes this is just one aspect of who Rob Smith is.
Smith is a veteran, someone who has been returning to church over the past year and a half, and someone who aligns with conservative principles on virtually every issue—lower taxes, limited government, and the entire spectrum of conservative policy positions. Tatum argues that disagreeing on one or two things out of a thousand doesn't negate someone's value to the conservative movement.
At the Ohio University event, some attendees were trolls while others asked legitimate questions about the homosexual movement within conservatism, which many believe should be rooted in Christianity. When asked what gay relationships have to do with the culture war, Smith gave what Tatum considers an adequate response: in America, nobody cares what you do in your bedroom. People wanted to hear from Smith's perspective as someone who happens to be gay, happens to be black, and happens to be a veteran.
America Is Not a Theocracy
Tatum addresses the criticism that Charlie Kirk is somehow an activist for the LGBT movement, calling this characterization untrue. He personally doesn't care what two consenting adults do, and suggests that hyper-focusing on it is weird. As a Christian who believes the Bible is the greatest book ever to exist in the history of the world, Tatum still maintains that Rob Smith has decency and dignity as an individual in the United States of America.
The key point, he emphasizes, is that America is not a theocracy and never has been. Charlie Kirk understands that all people in America need a voice, and whatever situation someone falls into doesn't negate the fact that people need to hear what they have to say.
Tatum defends Kirk taking a picture with someone at a meet and greet, explaining that people wait in line to take pictures and you'd have to be hostile to discriminate against someone who wants to take a picture with you. He uses his own example: people know he doesn't agree with cross-dressing and despises it, but that doesn't mean he endorses someone just because they're in a picture with him. Only uninformed people would assume someone endorses another person simply because they're photographed together.
Turning Point USA Represents Multiple Voices
Charlie Kirk represents Christianity and runs his organization on Judeo-Christian principles, Tatum explains, but that doesn't mean everyone who works for or participates in Turning Point USA shares identical beliefs. The organization employs people who are gay, atheist, Muslim, and Jewish, along with people of all spectrums.
Tatum challenges the assumption that every conservative must be a straight white Christian. There are gay people who believe in conservative values, Jewish people who believe in conservative values, and people of various faiths who align with conservative principles. He questions why people want to make a big deal out of one category—sexual orientation—when they don't raise concerns about the other categories of diversity within the conservative movement.
The anger directed at someone because of what they do with another consenting adult in the comfort of their own home makes the movement look bad, in Tatum's view. People aren't looking at the big picture. Individual Christians and individual conservatives can hold true to their personal principles, but the biggest overarching theme is that conservative values should hold precedent—not just Christian values, but conservative values of all faiths, especially those rooted in the Constitution.
Focus on What Matters: Constitutional Principles
The secular, constitutional ideas that should unite conservatives include minimal government, lower taxes, less regulation, freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms, and Second Amendment rights. These are the things that matter and what the movement should be promoting in order to win, Tatum argues.
He dismisses concerns about what people do in their private lives, suggesting that some of the fake Christians running around judging other people don't even know Christianity for themselves. They've never really read the Bible, don't know Christian doctrine, and attend false churches. Yet they feel qualified to judge others.
Whether the questions asked at the Ohio University event were from trolls or legitimate questioners doesn't matter, according to Tatum. Charlie Kirk and Rob Smith gave legitimate answers. The conservative movement needs to stop focusing on things that don't matter.
The Real Work of Conservatism
Tatum makes clear he doesn't care what people do in their homes. If he doesn't agree with one or two things someone believes, that's not his job to police. It's not his job to be the arbiter of conservatism. His job is to say he's a conservative, explain what conservatism means to him, pursue that vision, and let others pursue whatever they want to pursue.
He's busy working, grinding, trying to make a living, providing for his family, and creating content to dismantle the left. He doesn't have time to go on everybody's page to see what deviation of perspective they might have.
In closing, Tatum addresses Christians directly, pointing out the hypocrisy of thinking there should be no deviance or variation in the conservative movement when there are 45 different Christian denominations that they support. Why be mad at the conservative movement for including different perspectives when you're not mad at all the variations within Christianity itself?
Tatum concludes by asking his audience whether they think Charlie Kirk and Rob Smith had adequate responses, whether the questions were legitimate or from trolls, and whether it even matters. The fundamental issue remains: conservatives need to unite around shared constitutional values rather than divide over personal matters that don't affect the broader mission of the movement.
Comments
Be the first to comment on this video.