I worked for Charlie Kirk and he said he could never vote Trump | US | News

Utah and thousands of conservatives across the U.S. were devastated by the very public death of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, last week.

Following the shooting and the arrest of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of firing a single sniper rifle bullet at the conservative icon, many have taken to social media to describe their relationship with Kirk and his organisation.

One such person is Texas native Caroline Stout, whose story emerges as the major Tyler Robinson conspiracy theory on Charlie Kirk messages blown open by expert.

Describing herself as a “recovering conservative,” on TikTok, Stout told The Mirror U.S. how she once worked with Kirk at his nonprofit in 2014.

“I got connected with them when I was 16 or 17 years old,” said Stout, reports the Mirror US.

“I was in high school at the time and was involved in politics and living in Houston,” the now-28 year old added.

“And this was around when Charlie had recently launched Turning Point.”

According to the attorney, Kirk “was going around and doing some initial fundraising and so he came down to Houston because the Houston Republican party obviously is going to have a lot of money.”

Stout added that she met Kirk at an event to recruit young people.

“And that’s when I first got involved, and that’s when they invited me to go with him to CPAC, and I became a quote-unquote activist with them,” she said.

Stout told the Mirror U.S. that, as a young conservative herself, she was awed by Kirk. “I definitely had kind of stars in my eyes because I was in a place where I was 16, 17 years old, looking for belonging and trying to figure things out,” Stout remembered.

“So when I met him and I’d seen him on TV, I thought like, oh, this person’s legit.”

Stout described Kirik as “really cool” and “very principled.”

She explained, “I felt like I could relate to what he was saying because he presented things in such a relatable and understandable way.

“He was so genuine. He was very, very genuine,” Stout reflected. “And I can only speak as to who he was and how he was back between 2014 and 2017, because after that, I hadn’t spoken to him since 2017. But he was very genuine and always very kind to all his people, who took really good care of his people.”

Stout stressed that during that period, Kirk’s organisation was “built around no social issues, all focused on fiscal responsibility and limited government exclusively.”

She also confessed that she selfishly “looked at it as an opportunity for me to network with people in a world that I wanted to be in. And they made it really easy for me to have access to those people.”

During her time there, Stout occupied various roles within the organisation. “So when I was in high school, I worked with, when I was in high school, I was just kind of an activist. So I would go to their events and I would go to their different conferences and CPAC,” she detailed.

Upon reaching university, she took on the role of a field director and was a founding member of the Texas AandM chapter. “I would recruit people to be involved and to kind of build out their database,” Stout explained.

Shortly after, Stout relocated to Chicago – where Turning Point initially had its headquarters – primarily focusing on the media aspect.

However, by 2017 and following Donald Trump‘s election, Stout was prepared to part ways with Turning Point due to a significant shift.

“The organisation really shifted, and it really shifted leading up to that,” Stout elaborated regarding President Trump’s first election.

“But it really was really palpable at that point that this was the direction that the organisation was going because I think anyone will agree that Charlie was very ambitious,” she stated. “Because before Trump was the nominee, Charlie was a never-Trumper.

“Charlie said he could never vote for Trump,” she added. “It kind of flipped when he decided, he saw, I think, the writing on the wall that Trump was what was the next figurehead of the Republican party.”

Stout revealed that her decision to back the then-Republican nominee was a “strategic” move aimed at expanding the company and her “position of power within the government.”

She confessed: “And so that’s kind of when I left because it wasn’t a direction that I was comfortable with going, especially just the rhetoric and the immigrant and anti-women rhetoric is just not something that I was comfortable with.”

Life after Turning Point

Since parting ways with the organisation, Stout has dedicated herself to educating people about the other side of politics and to “find the common ground.”

She admitted, “It’s incredibly challenging because the general culture, especially being a white Christian in Texas, by default is expected that you are a Republican.

“It’s the default,” she clarified. “And so when you make the decision to deviate from that, defaults are going to be, there’s going to be a negative reaction to that.”

Stout also acknowledged that her political stance has caused friction with her conservative family members. “They are not accepting of the decisions I’m making. But I mean, there is a progressive movement within Texas,” she stated.

“So really spreading awareness to them about how to speak with conservatives and how to reach people on the right and find the common ground is really where my heart is and what my goal is,” she added.

“Having this conversation to teach people on the left how to reach people on the right and then connect with people on the right and communicate to them that they have permission to think for themselves and they have permission to leave a political orientation ideology that does not serve them, it does not actually represent their values.”

This follows another tragic incident where a zookeeper was mauled by a lion for 15 minutes, with staff revealing why no one intervened.