- Conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk is bringing his "American Comeback Tour" to Florida State University Friday.
- Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society plans to protest the event while students from Turning Point USA — which Kirk founded — are excited for the expression of free speech.
- Watch now to hear from both students on their thoughts on the event.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Landis Green at Florida State University is where students gather just about every day of the year.
But when Political Commentator Charlie Kirk comes to campus this week, Landis might look a lot more like this.
I'm Alberto Camargo, your College Town neighborhood reporter.
Digging into how this event will be handled by the university, and how students plan to show up in support and in protest.
Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative political organization that says its mission is to build activist networks on high school and college campuses.
He has millions of followers across his social media platforms — Owen Girard says a lot of them are right here at FSU.
"Almost every person on this campus knows who Charlie Kirk is. He's popped up on their social media feeds, they've been scrolling through TikTok. They've been seeing what he's talking about."
Girard is President of the Turning Point USA chapter at FSU.
He says Kirk's appearances are about open dialogue and debates about political topics — something that Girard says is not common on campus anymore.
"Modern academic institutions have been pushing certain narratives and certain ideas on college students and not really promoting a free speech environment where you have different political thought leaders from various ideologies coming to speak, as it once was."
The event is scheduled for Friday — Girard says it could draw thousands to Landis Green as it did at the University of South Florida last week.
But not all students will be participating.
"We are going to engage in the form of protesting, we will be chanting, we will be there with signs, we will be expressing ourselves as students.
JJ Glueck is the co-communications chair of Students for a Democratic Society.
She says SDS is critical of Kirk and his opinions — calling them intolerant and not welcome on campus.
That's why she says members of SDS will express their right to protest the event — but she expects things to stay peaceful.
"This is an event where we are likely to see counter-protesting of our protest of the event. Obviously nothing dangerous, we're not expecting any true confrontations, maybe some yelling — it's kind of part of the political sphere at this point."
I asked university officials how they plan to monitor the event.
They couldn't share any details with me, but did say FSU is aware of Friday's event and is planning accordingly, including preparations by FSUPD.
The event with Charlie Kirk will start at noon here on Landis Green.
SDS students say they will march in protest beginning at 11:30.
In College Town, Alberto Camargo, ABC27.
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