Trump Ally Charlie Kirk Suggests Children Should Watch Public Executions

Charlie Kirk, founder and president of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, suggested in a recent episode of The Charlie Kirk Show that children should watch public executions.

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of killing someone as punishment for a convicted crime. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there are 27 states that carry out the death penalty and 23 states that have abolished the lethal practice.

Meanwhile, several executions are scheduled to take place in the United States this year, starting with what was the nation's first execution using nitrogen gas in Alabama.

Twenty-four inmates were put to death in the U.S. in 2023, according to the DPIC. Texas carried out the most executions—eight—followed by Florida with six and Oklahoma and Missouri with four each. Alabama carried out two executions, one in July and another in November, following a series of flawed lethal injections in 2022.

On his weekly panel discussion, "ThoughtCrime," Kirk was discussing death penalties of those convicted of crimes, adding that not only does he believe there should be public executions, but that children should watch them.

"Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised. I think at a certain age, its an initiation...What age should you start to see public executions?" Kirk asked.

Kirk, along with his co-hosts Jack Posobiec, Tyler Bowyer and Blake Neff, continued to discuss at what age should children watch the public executions, with one co-host pointing out as young as 12 years old.

"I think maybe age 12, sixth grade or so when you are old enough... " Neff said.

While Bowyer pointed out that it should be at an age when someone "can embrace the meaning" of the execution.

In response, Kirk said, "I think it should be taken in a holy way and I don't mean holy in a bad way, I mean that this is heavy.

In addition, Kirk asked whether crime would go up or down if children were to watch public executions, "Here's a question for anyone that might be not persuaded. Would crime go up or down?"

Bowyer said, "It would go way down," with Kirk then asking, "So why is this even a question?"

Newsweek has reached out to the Charlie Kirk Show via an email online form for comment.

This is not the first time Kirk, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has been at the forefront of controversy before as pastor Darrell Scott, a radio host and another Trump supporter, said earlier this month that Kirk is attempting to inspire a new generation of the "Hitler youth."

Scott, pastor at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland, Ohio, appeared on The Tudor Dixon Podcast, hosted by Dixon, a former Michigan gubernatorial candidate, where they discussed Kirk and another conservative commentator, Candace Owens.

"In those years right after high school but before you enter all the way into full adulthood, those are some critical years in a person's life," Scott said. "Those years can make or break the rest of your life...and Charlie is trying to grab them right then and there and form these opinions in their mind of white oppression, white victimhood, Black man bad, white man better. He's really trying to infect this [Republican] Party with that ideology to turn this party into what this party's detractors say this is.

"I even said he's trying to raise up a new generation of Hitler youth...I know I was kind of extreme in my statements, but I'm drawing the comparison to him because this guy thinks he's slick. He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room and he's not."