MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk calls MLK 'awful' and deems Civil Rights Act a 'huge mistake'
GOP activist Charlie Kirk — founder of influential far-right group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) — is planning an offensive against the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday — when his birthday is observed as a federal holiday.
Tech publication WIRED reported on Friday on Kirk's announcement during a recent podcast episode that he would be "hitting [MLK] next week," and added "on the day of the Iowa caucus, it's MLK Day. We're gonna do the thing you're not supposed to do. We're gonna tell the truth about MLK Jr."
According to WIRED's report, Kirk's campaign against the memory of Dr. King has been in the making for several weeks. During a December convention hosted by his group dubbed "America Fest," Kirk told the audience that MLK was "awful."
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"He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe," Kirk said of the civil rights activist he referred to in 2015 as a "hero" and whom he called a "civil rights icon" as recently as 2022.
“I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it,” Kirk continued. “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
The TPUSA founder argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which effectively ended segregation in the United States and that MLK played a major role in passing — established a "permanent DEI-type bureaucracy" (diversity, equity and inclusion) and served as "a way to get rid of the First Amendment." He further complained that federal courts "just yield to the Civil Rights Act as if it's the actual American Constitution."
Former Biden White House intern Victor Shi said Americans should "be alarmed" by Kirk's comments, and called his anti-MLK campaign "textbook white supremacy."
WIRED reported that America Fest was attended by roughly 20,000 GOP activists, and featured headlining speakers like Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
