It can’t be too often that guests to Hawaii are threatened with being hit with frozen poop. But it didn’t seem to faze Trump surrogates and conservative provocateurs Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk. They came gunning for a fight.
“Frozen poop?! Hahahaha that’s a first,” tweeted Owens in response to the threats on social media. “Let’s do this Hawaii!”
The two 20-somethings have been traveling to college campuses nationwide as part their grassroots campaign to increase support for President Donald Trump and right-wing ideas. Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that promotes free-market capitalism and limited government. Owens, whose stature has been buoyed in recent months by Kanye West — who tweeted in April, “I love the way Candace Owens thinks” — is Turning Point’s communications director.
The event, organized by the Hawaii Republican Party and Young Republicans on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, included a 45-minute talk and question-and-answer session at Kuykendall Hall that was attended by about 200 people. The Republican Party promoted the event as a chance to hear diverse ideas “at a time of increased campus censorship by snowflakes with their safe spaces.”
The two main themes of the talk: America is the greatest country in the world and the Democratic Party has been harming black people through their government programs for the past six decades.
“In America right now there is a big divide,” Kirk told the crowd that included Trump supporters and opponents, and others there just to observe. “Are you thankful to live in America or are you angry to live in America? If you are thankful you’re most likely a Republican, and if you are angry you are most likely a Democrat. You should be kissing the ground saying, ‘Thank you God that I live in the greatest country on this earth.’”
Owens, who is black, said that blacks and other minorities have been brainwashed into supporting the Democratic Party.
“We lost everything by voting Democratic for the last 60 years,” she said. “We have lost everything. Our families have been destroyed, our communities have been decimated.”
She said government welfare programs have “acted like a drug dealer with the black community.”
The audience erupted within the first 15 minutes of their talk, with one critic trying to interrupt and others shouting him down. Owens and Kirk seemed to revel in the controversy, spouting off rapid-fire responses to those who challenged them.
But they were eager to cut the talk short as the main event was outside under a tent in a campus center courtyard. There they sat behind a table with a sign that read: “White privilege is a myth. Change my mind” and encouraged those who didn’t agree to approach a microphone for debate.
About 200 students gathered out front to watch people spar with Owens and Kirk, who often smirked at their political challengers or looked at them with boredom or disdain.
The outdoor spectacle lasted about an hour and a half and often devolved into shouting and was raucous for the UH campus whose students aren’t known for their political engagement.
“Most students can’t even commit to apathy because they are so apathetic,” Mike Lilly, a UH student who donned a bright red MAGA hat for the occasion, told the Star-Advertiser.
