He pointed out the paint on Kirk\u2019s neck and that the name \u201cJesus\u201d appeared to be almost fully blotted out by paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie, he was non-violent, and he suffered violence,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t even cuss,\u201d chimed in Jason Agan, another Mesa resident standing nearby.<\/p>\n
Agan said the vandalism didn\u2019t appear to be random.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew what they were doing,\u201d Agan said.<\/p>\n
Both Agan and Elliott spoke to an increasing political polarization, which Elliott said he believed could intensify after the incident. Agan, who attended a 2025 memorial following Kirk\u2019s death, said his initial thought seeing the statue outside of the Turning Point fence was that it could be vulnerable to vandalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, someone\u2019s gonna get it,\u201d he recalled thinking.<\/p>\n
Turning Point Action Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer wrote in a post on X when the statue was erected that the statue was placed outside the gates “so that others can enjoy it before it finds its final spot.” In response to a comment from a woman concerned about vandalism, Bowyer wrote that it would be moved behind the fence at some point.<\/p>\n
Turning Point leaders condemn vandalism<\/p>\n
Turning Point officials and allies, including Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk, condemned the vandalism and issued a rallying cry to get out the vote.<\/p>\n
Turning Point USA contributor and alt-right activist Jack Posobiec wrote in a post on X that there were cameras “all over” the headquarters gate and “the perpetrators WILL be brought to swift justice.”<\/p>\n
Bowyer wrote on X that leaders of the organization \u201cwoke up to radical criminals vandalizing our Headquarters\u201d the morning of Sept. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He pointed out the paint on Kirk\u2019s neck and that the name \u201cJesus\u201d appeared to be almost fully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,358344,229,88],"class_list":["post-847027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-crime-courts","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}