Suspicious package leads to temporary evacuation before Turning Point's return to Utah

The Logan campus temporarily evacuated a building Tuesday after a “non-explosive” device was found and detonated by the bomb squad “out of an abundance of caution,” the school said in an alert to students. The building is safe, the school said, and events “may resume as normal.”

Authorities are investigating but the university does not believe the package was a threat or related to the Turning Point event, school spokesperson Amanda DeRito told The Associated Press.

The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and a significant figure in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA has seen tens of thousands of requests to create new chapters in high schools and colleges.

Tuesday’s event, scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase Turning Point's path forward without its influential leader, who headlined many of its events and drew crowds.

The tour is now headlined by some of the biggest conservative names, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Glenn Beck. Tuesday’s event will feature conservative podcast host Alex Clark and a panel with Rep. Andy Biggs, former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Gov. Spencer Cox.

Sen. Mike Lee will appear by video due to budget votes in Washington, his spokesperson said.

The school's basketball stadium was filled with red “MAGA” hats, chants of “USA," and blaring country music. Volunteers handed out posters reading, “I am Charlie Kirk” and “In honor of Charlie Kirk, this is the turning point.”

Attendees said they'd come to pay tribute to Kirk alongside others he'd inspired and to try to heal together.

“I feel like the tension is super high, especially being in the same state where it happened. But I’m super excited for it,” said Jada Chilton, from Salt Lake City. “It’s kind of just healing my soul kind of being that I actually get to come to a Turning Point event even though the main spirit of it isn’t here.”

Chilton said listening to Kirk on TV, in debates and on his podcast had been her “daily regimen." She'd bought tickets to the event 30 minutes before the assassination, which left her shattered.

“I was on the floor sobbing," she said.

She said authorities were on roofs and police officers were “everywhere" keeping Tuesday's event secure.

“It makes you feel more comfortable, but it just is sad and disappointing, honestly, that we have to," she said.

Michelle Hlavaty from Logan, Utah, said she bought her ticket before the assassination, and was heartened to see the tour going on. She's been listening to Kirk's podcast daily since 2016.

“I love that Charlie had that impact on so many people and so many people have come out of the woodwork and declared who they are religiously,” she said.

Charlie Kirk's widow says, ‘We have our marching orde

rs’

Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, had pledged to continue the campus tour and the organization’s work. She oversees Turning Point along with a stable of her late husband’s former aides and friends and has said she is doing so as her late husband intended, closely following plans he laid out to her and to staff.

“We’re not going anywhere. We have the blueprints. We have our marching orders,” she said last week on Kirk's podcast, which she also vowed would continue with rotating hosts and decades of clips of her husband.

“My husband’s voice will live on," she said.

Erika Kirk, however, made clear that she does not intend to appear on the podcast often, and so far seems to be assuming a more behind-the-scenes role than her husband.

Mikey McCoy, Kirk's former chief of staff, said Erika Kirk is in daily contact with the Trump administration, and has described her as “very strategic” and different from her husband.

Turning Point events pay tribute to Charlie Kirk

The college tour's events since Kirk's death have focused on honoring his memory as well as prayer and the question-and-answer sessions Kirk was known for.

At Virginia Tech last week, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, urged the crowd to carry Kirk's legacy forward.

“The question that has been asked over and over again is: Who will be the next Charlie? And as I look out in this room and I see thousands of you, I want to repeat the best answer that I have heard: You will be the next Charlie,” he said. “All of you.”

Kelly, who headlined the event, told the crowd that she knew appearing carried risk, but that it was important “to send a message that we will not be silenced by an assassin’s bullet, by a heckler’s veto, by a left-wing, woke professor or anyone who tries to silence us from saying what we really believe,” she said to loud cheers.

At the University of Minnesota last week, conservative commentator Michael Knowles, who was originally set to appear with Kirk, responded to attendees' questions, ranging from a man quibbling about Catholic doctrine to another arguing against women's suffrage. A spotlight illuminated a chair left empty for Kirk.

Knowles said Kirk was instrumental in keeping together disparate conservative factions, and he worries about Trump's conservative movement fracturing without Kirk.

“The biggest threat right now is that without that single figure that we were all friends with, who could really hold it together, things could spin off in different directions,” Knowles said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Colvin reported from New York and Cooper from Phoenix.