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Despite the free tickets, the vice president’s recent guest appearance at a major event in Georgia drew a sparse crowd in a stadium that could hold thousands.
Vice President JD Vance was the listed VIP guest at Turning Point USA’s recent “This Is The Turning Point Tour,” held on Tuesday (April 14) at the Athens Ford Arena in Athens, Georgia, according to The Daily Beast.
Turning Point USA advertised the tour on its website with the promise of Vance’s onstage appearance, calling the event a chance to honor the life and mission of the late Turning Point USA co-founder and political activist, Charlie Kirk.
“Each stop is a chance to honor Charlie’s mission and keep the fight alive. We know he wouldn’t want us to surrender or be coerced into silence. Free speech is only free if we use our voices,” the event's webpage reads.
However, despite the 180,000-square-foot venue’s capacity of over 8,000 seats, footage shared by MS NOW journalist Jake Traylor shows the entire second half of the stadium empty.
Traylor estimated that the venue was only about 25% full by the time Vance began speaking, or around 2,000 people.
According to The Red & Black, an Athens-based student-run news site that covered the event, Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk and current CEO & Chair of Turning Point USA, was also scheduled to appear alongside Vance.
However, she was not present, with Vance explaining during his appearance that she had received “some very serious threats” that prompted her to cancel her appearance prior to the event.
Kirk herself later shared on X that, while she was looking forward to talking with Vance, she said, “after all our family has been through, I take my security team’s recommendations extremely seriously.”
Some critics questioned the explanation.
“They really want us to believe that the TPUSA event was safe enough for the Vice President but not for Erika Kirk? I’m not buying it. She canceled because they couldn’t pull more than a couple hundred people,” journalist Eric Spracklen, who also shared footage of the event, said.
“Stop. This is exhausting. You pulled out because of bad ticket sales. Were there actually a viable threat, the Vice President would not have continued the event,” conservative political commentator Candace Owens wrote on X.
The next stop on the tour is on April 21 at Ohio State University, which will feature appearances by would-be Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy, reality TV star Savannah Chrisley, and Fox News host Lawrence Jones.
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