A recollection of Charlie Kirk from someone who worked closely with him

Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk will be memorialized this weekend at State Farm Stadium in Arizona.

For some context on Kirk’s legacy, The Show recently spoke with someone who knew Kirk personally.

Full conversation

SAM DINGMAN: Last year, I was doing some reporting at Arizona State University about student activism on campus, and in the course of those conversations, I met a guy named Carson Carpenter. At the time, Carson was vice president of the ASU College Republicans. He later became president.

Carson grew up in Prescott, and he's an ambitious guy. He told me that he started taking college courses when he was still in high school. Earlier this year, he graduated from ASU at just 19 years old, and he recently launched a media company called Off the Record USA. During our first conversation, Carson told me about a formative experience.

Back in 2021, when he was still in high school, he went to a Turning Point USA event. Charlie Kirk spoke at the event, and unlike a lot of Kirk's events in recent years, this was a relatively small gathering, just 100 people or so. Carson says what stuck with him was that it seemed like Charlie wasn't there to debate politics. Carson said, it felt more like a conversation.

CARSON CARPENTER: He was just a lot more like personable, I would say, to the point where he was talking about his wife Erika, personal issues, social issues, faith-driven issues, and that's what the majority of his speech there was, was all about.

DINGMAN: Once Carson got to ASU and joined the College Republicans, he ended up working closely with Charlie Kirk. And so, in advance of this weekend's memorial service for Kirk at State Farm Stadium, I reached out to Carson for a follow-up conversation. I wanted to know more about the impact Kirk had on young men like Carson.

When we spoke earlier this week, Carson told me about this event that he and Kirk hosted at ASU last fall, and I asked him what it was like to spend time with Kirk.

CARPENTER: It was just kind of his happy place to be with those students. He wasn't debating, he was rallying people to register to vote at that time. So it's a lot different than people, you know, are remembering Charlie for now is his like, you know, debates and having discourse that way.

We walked with him into the middle of the crowd where he had a cameraman and he was just interviewing people. He wasn't debating anyone, nothing of that sort. He was just interviewing people to hear how happy they were to be there.

Sam Dingman/KJZZ

DINGMAN: What was the event?

CARPENTER: It was a registered to vote event. it was in September of '24, so right before the election, that time period. So, you know, he was getting mauled out there, right, because of all the love and compassion from the students. They were just saying, he was such an inspiration. They hope to be like him one day, speak as eloquently about God, and he just like looked down at me and he's like, this is awesome, isn't it? And just had like the biggest smile on his face.

DINGMAN: So at this event, which ended up having him walk through the crowd and interview people as you were saying, did he also give a speech or was the whole thing just him walking through the crowd talking to people?

CARPENTER: So he walked in and he went up and gave about 45 seconds to a minute talk of just the reason why you need to register to vote, the impact of it, that it'll have on the university, and, and every day in their lives, and then he said, let's start having some fun throwing out some hats, and I get to walk around with you guys, and that was about it.

And then he started trying to get out to go talk with everyone with his mic and just he stayed out there for about I think 45 minutes to an hour.

DINGMAN: So 45 seconds to a minute of talking, 45 minutes to an hour of work in the crowd.

CARPENTER: Yeah, and that was something really special about Charlie that's underscored and I haven't heard a lot of people talk about it, was his accessibility. Where a student could walk out at 12 p.m. in the afternoon hungover from the night before, go to that Charlie Kirk tent on the campus and ask him a question about a social issue, mental health, any type of these range of issues. And it could have even changed Charlie's mind on a lot of these issues.

And he was a mouthpiece to the president, to the current vice president now. He was a mouthpiece to all these officials that don't have that type of access to college students. So I think that's something that's also left behind with Charlie is being that accessible to younger people and people in college like how I was at the time.

DINGMAN: What impact did he have on your views?

CARPENTER: I think what he ultimately changed the most about me was just feeling comfortable to speak about Jesus and God in a public manner. I think, you know, before Charlie, and before he had gotten popular in this last two years, it was very kind of almost out of touch to speak about Jesus and your faith and in that manner, even though it's expressing yourself and your viewpoint outward, right?

But now I feel like it's been very normalized, and I think a lot of people are feeling a lot more comfortable to speak out about how they personally come to a decision on policy issues on other issues because of their faith inside them. Charlie was a prime example of that because in the last two years when he did these prove me wrong tours, faith became a way bigger part of it. And a lot of people started to understand why he actually had those thoughts about these certain viewpoints that could be explained through his recital of Scripture.

DINGMAN: So in, let me make sure I understand what you were just saying. You think he could be a model for more people to be open about their faith?

CARPENTER: Absolutely. That's why a lot of people after his death have said he's a great American martyr is because a lot of people view that because of his outward profession of faith, especially in those types of heavily media oriented environments, heavily broadcasted environments, it's going to create a more comfortable atmosphere for more people to exercise that in their own manner.

DINGMAN: But how much space do you feel like he left, because as you know, there's a tremendous amount of debate right now about what he actually stood for and how he engaged in debate with people. How much space do you feel like he left for people of different faiths than his?

CARPENTER: I think he left a lot because he was just professing his own faith and why he believed in these manners and arguing it as his moral principles that he sees. So he would express it in that way. Obviously, other people had other frameworks that they believe in and that's why he was able to engage in those debates and brought forth those debates.

I've heard a lot of people say he had divisive opinions, that he was controversial and dividing, but he brought people on college campuses together to debate in the most pure form of debate where you can walk up anybody, and if you disagreed with him, you got to cut to the front of the line. That's, that's what's different, is he wouldn't silence you if you disagreed with him, he would bring you to the front of the line.

Sam Dingman/KJZZ

DINGMAN: What do you say to people who consider him to have played a role in making the conversation around these topics more extreme? Because, as I know you have seen, Charlie is on record as saying that it's worth some people getting killed every year in the name of preserving Second Amendment rights. He's obviously spoken negatively about Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Act. These are extreme views.

CARPENTER: I think Charlie, you know, obviously had hot takes, hot opinions, everything that is undeniable. That doesn't excuse him to be shot in cold blood, right?

DINGMAN: Of course not, of course not.

CARPENTER: And I know Charlie knew that it was very unsafe to do what he was doing, right? I think he, I think he knew that with going in front of thousands of people. He knew he was in danger. His security team knew he was in danger, and Charlie, he broke through it and had the courage to still speak out and still debate. So he knew the risk of what was gonna happen for what, what he was doing and so I don't think there's any hypocrisy there from his part.

DINGMAN: You're saying he felt like there is inherent danger in taking a stand on certain issues and he was comfortable with that.

CARPENTER: Yeah, yeah, I think Jack Posobeic said it last night at the ASU vigil. He was saying that he had told Charlie that, you know, it's probably not safe to be out in front of these things, and he said that Charlie said, never, I'm never gonna stop.

DINGMAN: Do you feel scared? Has this shooting created any sense of fear for you?

CARPENTER: No, no, and I don't think it should be. Fear is not an objective thing. It's different for everybody, right? So if it's different for everybody, a collective fear is not a tangible thing. It doesn't exist in reality. It's a part of someone's psyche. So I believe I'm not, I'm not fearful about the situation. I know a lot of other people aren't fearful about the situation and it takes courage to move through it and I'm not worried about going and speaking in front of crowds.

I actually did it this last weekend in Prescott. There's about 3,000 to 4,000 people I spoke in front of, and as far as I could tell, it was a pretty small police presence but …

DINGMAN: Was that a Charlie Kirk event?

CARPENTER: It was a Charlie Kirk vigil up there on Saturday, and I had no fear in my mind. There were rooftops that were exposed around. It's in this public square. It's by this courthouse. I had no fear. My faith carried me through that.