Kyle Rittenhouse abruptly exited the stage during his appearance at the University of Memphis on Wednesday following a confrontation regarding remarks made by Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA, the organization behind his college speaking tour, according to footage circulating on the social media platform X.
Rittenhouse was invited by the university's Turning Point USA chapter to speak about the Second Amendment and the "lies of [Black Lives Matter]," which drew outrage from several students. College communities pushed back against his invitation to their campuses, noting his status as a controversial figure.
Rittenhouse gained infamy after he was cleared of any wrongdoing for fatally shooting two men with an AR-15-style rifle during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in 2020. He fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, claiming self-defense.
Kyle Rittenhouse reacts as he is found not guilty on all counts at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Nov. 19, 2021, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was found not guilty of all charges in the shooting of three demonstrators, killing two of them, during a night of unrest that erupted in Kenosha after a police officer shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back while being arrested in August 2020. Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, claimed self-defense who at the time of the shooting was armed with an assault rifle. (Photo: Sean Krajacic - Pool/Getty Images)
In the video, Rittenhouse stood onstage at the University of Memphis as students confronted him about Kirk's previous statements, Turning Point USA's founder and executive director.
"Charlie Kirk has said a lot of racist things," said a student addressing Rittenhouse from the audience.
"What racist things has Charlie Kirk said?" Rittenhouse snapped back. "We're gonna have a little bit of a dialogue of what racist things that Charlie Kirk said.”
The student replied: "He says that we shouldn't celebrate Juneteenth, we shouldn't celebrate Martin Luther King Day—we should be working those days—he called Ketanji Brown Jackson an affirmative action hire, he said all this nonsense about George Floyd, and he said he'd be scared if a Black pilot was on a plane. Does that not seem racist?"
Kirk has been known for his outrageous rhetoric that toes the line of hatred and white supremacy.
"I don't know anything
