Turning Point USA hosted a political rally on April 28 in the ICCU Arena, with speakers including Laine Schoneberger, CEO of Yrefy, Jobob Taeleifi, a comedian and commentator, Matt Walsh, a commentator affiliated with the Daily Wire, and Michael Knowles, also a commentator affiliated with the Daily Wire.
The conservative group, known for their connections on college campuses, spoke to students and community members about the conservative path forward for the United States. Schoneberger opened with remarks on student debt in the United States and the growing debt issues that have been arising due to government loans. Schoneberger advocated for the privatization of all student debt and removing the government entirely from student debt.
Taeleifi showed an excerpt from The Daily Californian following a visit to the University of California, Berkeley, which stated he had shared, “a number of racist and homophobic jokes.” This excerpt was followed by Taeleifi saying, “This is a wild misrepresentation of my humor. My jokes are also misogynistic, xenophobic and transphobic.” Taeleifi continued with remarks that coincided with his explanation of his jokes.
Knowles and Walsh headlined the event, starting with remarks about former FBI Director James Comey’s recent indictment, claiming that it was a “very good start” and further claimed that democrats have continually called for violence against conservatives. Continuing through the event Knowles and Walsh claimed that liberals and leftist are demonic, a claim that was perpetuated throughout the event.
Knowles and Walsh made jokes about the media in the room and Knowles commented that he was ashamed of himself for listening NPR earlier in the day. Knowles also called the media outlet “the establishment liberal outlet.”
Knowles claimed that 56% Democrat respondents said they would justify violence against U.S. President Donald Trump, although Knowles did not cite where this research was from.
During the question-and-answer section, Walsh and Knowles were asked various questions ranging from support to dissent. One question posed was if there should be a shift away from the Republican party and a revival of parties such as the Whigs. To this point, it was emphasized that no new wars should arise. Knowles and Walsh both responded with a similar sentiment, with Walsh going further with saying that he had previously stated that we should not go to war with Iran.
One moment of dissent was when a statistical question referencing transgender mass shooters in the United States was asked. The graph in question was a fake graph that was created by an X user that was subsequently used on Matt Walsh’s Daily Wire show. The graph shows transgender people that had their sex assigned at birth as male at the highest rate of mass shooting violence, while transgender people who had their sex assigned at birth as female shortly behind that of sex assigned at birth as male. Walsh continued with these remarks calling transgender people “mentally deranged” along with the questioner.
The political rally and question and answer portion concluded with a ten-year-old boy that went up and expressed his desire to become a priest in the future. The ten-year-old asked what advice that Walsh and Knowles would have for that desire. Knowles responded, “Don’t be a Jesuit,” although encouraging the ten-year-old to continue on the path to become a priest when he is older.
Dale Fussell can be reached at [email protected].