Conspiracy theories questioning the official narrative of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk's death, especially those espoused by Candace Owens, appear to be gaining popularity with his own former employees at Turning Point USA.
Writing for The Bulwark on Thursday, Will Sommer, a veteran reporter in the realms of far-right politics and conspiracy theories, relayed the story of Aubrey Laitsch, a former communications staffer at TPUSA who was recently let go from the company. Laitsch claims that her boss's stated reason for firing her involved a "convoluted" story about the executive hearing she was telling friends conspiracy theories related to Kirk's death, a story which she "didn't buy."
Instead, Laitsch believes that her firing had something to do with her belief that TPUSA itself may have played a hand in Kirk's death. Versions of this unfounded conspiracy theory have notably been spread in recent months by Owens, an outspoken far-right commentator, who has suggested publicly numerous times that the shooting may have been orchestrated by forces within the organization, or by parties connected to Israel.
"I just have a gut feeling that I was terminated from Turning Point because I am questioning the narrative of what happened to my role model and CEO, Charlie Kirk, on the day of his assassination," Laitsch said in a video released last week.
Kirk, who founded TPUSA in 2012 and grew to be one of the more popular commentators in far-right U.S. politics, was shot and killed at an event he was hosting at Utah Valley University in September. Suspect Tyler James Robinson was later arrested and charged with the shooting, with the case currently making its way through court.
In his piece, Sommer acknowledged that conspiracies about Kirk's death remain unfounded and said that TPUSA would be well within its rights to fire employees for "telling people you thought your bosses murdered someone." Beyond that, however, he argued that Laitsch's story and others show that the conspiracies are increasingly taking hold within TPUSA itself, not just in the wider conservative media landscape.
"Laitsch is just one of several Turning Point staffers who has been fired amid what’s been dubbed a 'purge' of employees," Sommer detailed. "While it’s not clear how many have been let go, Owens has played audio on her show of another staffer who claimed to have been fired without explanation. Owens also claimed that a TPUSA executive showed up at a third staffers home to fire her and demand the immediate return of her company devices."
He continued: "It’s hard to say if these firings are being driven by the (very sensible) disapproval of staff talking about their company killing its founder, or paranoia about Owens having credible information about internal TPUSA activities — or both. But clearly, someone within the organization is leaking to Owens. Just this year, the highly controversial podcaster posted videos of Erika Kirk on internal videochats in the wake of Kirk’s assassination that were interpreted on the online right as insufficiently mournful."
