Radical activists and commentators in Colorado continue to repeat explosive claims about what Charlie Kirk supposedly said — including quotes major fact‑checks show he never actually uttered — and they are using those distortions to demand that Turning Point USA be driven out of schools and campuses across the state. This article looks at what Kirk actually said, where his words have been twisted or fabricated, and how those misrepresentations are driving Colorado fights over “safety” and free speech.
The “Black women” line that doesn’t exist
After Kirk’s assassination on September 10, one claim rocketed around social media: that he said “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously” and must “steal a white person’s slot.” That alleged quote has been repeated in Colorado as proof that he despised all Black women and that anything connected to him is inherently unsafe for Black female students.
Fact‑checks that reviewed the July 13, 2023 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, along with full transcripts, found that those words simply do not appear in the broadcast. In that segment, Kirk criticized four specific public figures — Michelle Obama, Joy Reid, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson — who had discussed affirmative action, using “you” to refer to those named individuals, not “Black women” as a group. The viral version swaps “Black women” where the transcript shows “you,” transforming targeted political criticism into a sweeping racial attack that he did not actually say.
Major outlets have already had to correct the record. The Financial Times issued a formal correction over its use of the misquote, and other commentators who shared the fabricated line have faced public backlash or discipline. Yet the fake wording continues to circulate in Colorado activist feeds and opinion pieces as if it were a verbatim statement, long after the transcript and audio disproved it.
When “Cenk” becomes a slur
Another staple of anti‑TPUSA posts is a short clip that appears to show Kirk repeatedly hurling an anti‑Asian slur at a woman during a public debate. The edited video is often used to claim he “made millions off racism and sexism” and that TPUSA events are inherently hostile to Asian Americans.
The full recording of the 2018 Politicon debate tells a different story. The Young Turks posted the complete event themselves, and contemporaneous coverage describes Kirk sparring onstage with TYT co‑founder Cenk Uygur. In the unedited video, the word Kirk repeats — the word viewers in Colorado are still told is a slur — is “Cenk,” Uygur’s first name, shouted several times in the heat of the exchange. Community Notes attached to social‑media versions of the clip now flag that fact, but some high‑profile accounts have left their original posts and accusations unchanged.
Here, the core allegation collapses once the full footage is watched: there is plenty to argue about in Kirk’s rhetoric, but the claim that he screamed a racial epithet at an Asian woman is not borne out by the record.
Hard quotes that are real
None of this means Kirk’s record is above criticism. Some of his real statements are harsh and remain deeply offensive to many.
At AmericaFest in 2023 he said, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s,” a line widely quoted to portray him as nostalgic for segregation. In longer explanations, including an interview where he cited Christopher Caldwell’s book The Age of Entitlement, he argued that the Act was written too broadly, created a permanent civil‑rights bureaucracy and, in his view, sometimes clashes with constitutional protections for individual rights, while saying he opposed Jim Crow and supported a narrow ban on racial discrimination. Critics strongly reject that thesis, but the argument is about constitutional design and federal power, not an open call to restore Jim Crow.
At a 2023 TPUSA event in Utah, Kirk also said it was “worth it” to accept some gun deaths each year in order to preserve the Second Amendment, language many people found callous toward victims. In context, he framed it as one of the grim trade‑offs that come with broad rights — similar to accepting that free speech protects ugly or false speech — but his phrasing sounded cold to those focused on families who have lost loved ones. These unattractive but real quotes show why Kirk remained polarizing even without invented lines about “Black women.”
How misquotes seeped into Colorado debates
Despite national corrections, the caricature of Kirk built partly on these doctored quotes has filtered directly into Colorado’s fights over TPUSA. After his death, Colorado commentators and activists described him as a proud racist and white supremacist, often leaning on the fake Black‑women line as shorthand without noting that multiple fact‑checks have debunked it. That national picture of Kirk has been used as a proxy in local arguments over whether TPUSA chapters inherently endanger “marginalized” students.
At Fort Lewis College in Durango, a petition opposing a TPUSA chapter drew more than 400 signatures and urged student government to block recognition on safety grounds. The petition asserted that TPUSA “has engaged in actions that directly harm our community,” stressing that many Fort Lewis students are Indigenous, LGBTQ+ or from other under‑represented backgrounds and linking the group’s presence to a hostile climate. When the student board first voted unanimously to deny the chapter, speakers pointed primarily to Kirk’s national persona and TPUSA’s reputation, not to specific local misconduct by Fort Lewis students.
In Eagle County, opponents of a TPUSA‑affiliated high‑school club launched a “Stop Eagle Valley High School from Hosting Turning Point USA Group” petition, warning that the organization would bring “racist, homophobic and sexist hate speech” into the school environment. Local coverage and commentary framed TPUSA as a pipeline for “hate,” often echoing the same viral Kirk quotes — including the debunked Black‑women claim — as the main evidence.
CU Boulder: accusations, doxxing and a hockey‑stick attack
At the University of Colorado Boulder, the atmosphere has grown even more volatile. In October, the anonymous collective Front Range Anti‑Fascists published a blog post accusing CU Boulder TPUSA secretary Nathaniel Ellis of belonging to the white‑supremacist groups Patriot Front and Active Club and of being responsible for over 100 incidents of racist and antisemitic vandalism. Boulder Reporting Lab, which covered the story, noted that it had not independently confirmed Ellis’s alleged memberships or his role in the graffiti campaign, even as photos surfaced of him near people wearing white‑power symbols.
Front Range Anti‑Fascists then produced flyers featuring Ellis’s photo, those allegations and a request for information on where he “lives or works,” which were distributed locally and shared widely on social media, including by a student organization. Three days later, Ellis reported being followed from campus and struck from behind with a hockey stick near 27th Way and Baseline Road; Boulder police later said it appeared the suspect had followed him and that his political affiliation was relevant to the motive. Investigators released images of a man carrying a hockey stick and arrested an Arvada resident, saying they were examining whether the online posts and flyers played a role in the assault.
The Ellis case mixes unverified but serious allegations of extremist ties with an apparent politically motivated assault on a student after a doxxing‑style campaign. It illustrates how quickly accusations — including those amplified by misquotes and edited clips — can escalate from social‑media rhetoric to physical danger.
Fort Lewis reverses under constitutional pressure
Fort Lewis College’s initial denial of the TPUSA chapter did not stand. After Flynn appealed and outside scrutiny intensified — including a letter from Colorado House Republicans warning of First Amendment problems — the student government called an emergency meeting on November 7. In a small room with about 20 people inside and more than 100 waiting in the hall, the same Associated Students board that had unanimously rejected TPUSA reversed itself and voted unanimously to recognize the chapter as a Registered Student Organization.
In a statement, Fort Lewis said the vote “reflects ASFLC’s commitment to fair governance, educational growth, and consistent policy application,” stressing that recognition does not mean endorsement and that all student groups must follow college policies and community standards. Outside the meeting, however, emotions were raw. Video that spread online shows retired anthropology professor David Kozak repeatedly calling TPUSA supporters “Nazis,” shouting profanities and making obscene gestures as students left, behavior a law professor later cited as an example of campus intolerance toward opposing views. The college responded by noting that Kozak retired in 2022 and by reaffirming its commitment to academic excellence, free expression and civil discourse.
Even after recognition, TPUSA flyers at Fort Lewis have been vandalized, and chapter leaders report a hostile environment, though a counter‑petition in favor of recognition eventually gathered more than 1,300 signatures, eclipsing the original opposition. The sequence — from “safety”‑based denial to legal reconsideration to grudging compliance — shows how quickly Nazi analogies and national caricatures can be used to block a student group until constitutional rules force a course correction.
What Buena Vista actually saw
In the High Country, the recent Chaffee County Patriots town hall in Buena Vista offers a ground‑level view of what TPUSA engagement can look like away from the headlines. On November 14, the Patriots hosted Western Colorado University TPUSA leader Anthony Locke at St. Rose of Lima Parish Hall, opening with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance before a crowd they described as one of their largest in years. Locke described launching a TPUSA chapter on a largely apathetic and sometimes hostile campus, saying the group committed to meeting hostility with “love, discipline, character, and prayer” and nonetheless grew to about 40 members in just over a month.
He walked attendees through the chapter’s routine: weekly Tuesday‑night meetings in Gunnison, campus devotionals that blend faith and political discussion, and community‑service efforts such as food drives and collaboration with the local GOP. Locke mentioned existing or emerging chapters at Western, Colorado Mesa, Colorado College and the University of Northern Colorado, as well as interest at Gunnison High School, and emphasized that new chapters must be initiated by students, with adults providing logistical support. When local shooting‑sports coach Jake Faber said he had several students eager to join a chapter and offered to help, Locke underscored that visible backing from families and community members can help get chapters approved.
Outside St. Rose of Lima, a small group of protesters repeated familiar talking points about Kirk and TPUSA and left behind signs and litter that police and High Country Advocate staff later cleaned up. Inside, the town‑hall remained calm and orderly, with residents afterward describing Locke as informed and courteous and Patriots leaders thanking Buena Vista police for providing security. For those in the room, the evening looked less like a “hate group” rally and more like a local effort to organize conservative students around faith, family and civic engagement.
Safety, speech and telling the truth
Colorado institutions are right to take genuine threats against students seriously, and Kirk’s record gives critics no shortage of real material to argue over. But when activists, commentators or school officials build their case on quotes that transcripts and full video show were altered or fabricated, they undermine their own arguments and short‑circuit honest debate.
Whether TPUSA should be welcomed, tolerated or rejected in Colorado schools and colleges is a hard question, but it should be answered on the basis of what Kirk and his followers actually believe and do — including their most offensive real statements — not on the most viral and convenient distortions. In a state that prides itself on both diversity and free expression, the bare minimum standard for any serious conversation about safety and extremism is simple: tell the truth about what was said before deciding who gets silenced.
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