Politics

Charlie Kirk Says 2020 Election Is ‘The Most Critical Since 1860’ At Republican National Convention

(Photo by Ed Rode/Getty Images for Politicon)

Bradley Devlin General Assignment & Analysis Reporter
Font Size:

Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk spoke virtually Monday at the Republican National Convention and stressed that “this election is the most critical since 1860.”

The speech was part of the first day of the 2020 Republican National Convention primetime broadcast.Kirk introduced himself as running the “largest pro-American student organization in the country.”

Kirk, speaking in his “personal capacity,” said, “I see the angst of young people, as well as the challenges facing new parents.”

“This election is a decision between preserving America as we know it and eliminating everything that we love,” he continued. Kirk stated that before Trump, both parties “sold out” the American people to China, “faceless corporations” and “self-serving lobbyists.” Kirk said that this was a sustained, concerted effort from the elite class to “enrich” themselves, while “hold[ing] down the good, decent, middle-class patriots striving to build a family.” 

Kirk said this all changed in 2015, when Donald Trump “came down that famous escalator, he started a movement to reclaim our government from the rotten cartel of insiders that have been destroying our country.”

Kirk was not a supporter of Trump’s presidential bid from day one. He first supported Ted Cruz’s bid in 2016 before becoming one of Trump’s most emphatic and outspoken supporters, according to the Chicago Tribune. (RELATED: Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens Harassed By Protesters)

“Trump is the bodyguard of western civilization,” Kirk continued, citing the rioting and looting in recent months, as well as cancel culture and social media censorship, as evidence that the “American way of life is being dismantled by a group of bitter, deceitful, vengeful activists” on the left.

“This election is the most critical since 1860,” Kirk claimed.

“We have to be grateful, not angry, that we live in the United States,” he concluded, “We will build a future where America remains the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world.”