In the days following the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk in early September 2025, social media exploded with rumors about the late conservative activist, including purported quotes.
One such claim circulating across social media sites like Instagram (archived), X (archived), and particularly on Facebook (archived, archived, archived), was that Kirk once introduced Kyle Rittenhouse at a Turning Point USA event as "a hero to millions." Many of the posts sharing the rumor also included alleged photos of the two men together.
Rittenhouse was an Illinois teenager who was charged with, and later acquitted of, homicide and reckless endangerment after he fatally shot two people and wounded another during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug, 25, 2020.
The quote is correctly attributed to Kirk. He introduced Rittenhouse at a panel, titled, "Kenosha on Camera," on Dec. 20, 2021, at a Turning Point USA event called "AmericaFest 2021."
Following Kirk's introduction and the crowd chanting Rittenhouse's name, Kirk said:
Kyle, I just got to say that what you went through, where they tried to destroy your life, the media tried to destroy you, the current president right now called you a white supremacist … and Kyle, the way you held it all together, you're a hero to millions and and it's an honor to be able to have you here.
Snopes previously fact-checked the "white supremacist" comment Kirk alluded to in this statement and found it to be mostly true.
Videos of the "Kenosha on Camera" panel are available on YouTube from a variety of users and attendees, all showing an identical sequence of events from different angles. On the same date, a user on X (archived) posted a behind-the-scenes moment of Rittenhouse as he prepared to be called out on stage by Kirk.
In the video below, the quote in question begins at 1:35.
Further, Rittenhouse's acquittal had dominated headlines a month prior to "AmericaFest 2021," and journalists covered his appearance at the event extensively.
For instance, Rolling Stone, Salon and Esquire ran Op-Ed pieces about conservatives' "lionizing" of Rittenhouse. The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Guardian, the New York Post and local Arizona outlet AZ Central reported on Rittenhouse's appearance and warm reception at the event.
Snopes has fact-checked a variety of claims surrounding Kirk after he was fatally shot in Utah on Sept. 10, 2025.
For example, we've looked into rumors that he allegedly once said if he had a 10-year-old daughter who became pregnant after being raped he'd want her to deliver the baby, that he called Martin Luther King Jr. "an awful person" and that he said gay people should be stoned to death.