The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of AmFest

Conflicts came to a head in the first America Fest since the death of Charlie Kirk

Things are fracturing in the MAGA movement. There is no point in pretending otherwise. That was clear by how America Fest rolled out its speakers and what became the story of the day. The New York Times dug in with a knife and fork. They won’t be the only ones. Things are, shall we say, taking a dark turn.

The one thing that was really clear from the weekend’s events is what we already knew: There is no replacing Charlie Kirk. I wish it hadn’t turned into fights over who Charlie was and what he believed, but thanks to the opportunistic, narcissistic, all-around awful human being, Candace Owens, that is where it landed. America Fest turned into a fight over how to deal with her.

If MAGA ignores this, if they don’t take a principled stand against it, I think they will have a very tough time winning in 2026 or 2028. The Democrats can easily draw a distinction, especially if it’s Gavin Newsom. They can say that side is crazy, and they cozy up with Groypers and Neo-Nazis, etc.

That is basically what Ben Shapiro said when he took to the stage on Night One.

Even though I believe Ben Shapiro was 100% right in calling out Candace and doing so in a way that also reminded young people that you can’t believe everything you see online and you can’t trust influencers, I also felt like mom and dad were fighting when he also called out Megyn Kelly. She felt like he sideswiped her, and that ended their friendship, as the NY Times was happy to report.

Charlie Kirk’s unique ability was to unite people across different perspectives. He was a bridge builder, not a bridge burner. He did not alienate people. He wanted to talk to everyone, but he was always clear about what he believed. I’m not sure enough Conservatives at AmFest made it clear what they believed to reflect a cohesive whole.

It wasn’t all bad. There was some good. Erika Kirk did her best, and there were some genuinely sweet moments, like Grandma Jeannie, the woman who was harassed and bullied by someone at Target showing up.

The famous rapper Nicki Minaj shocked everyone by appearing as a surprise guest. What a shock to see someone that high profile in culture doing something that brave. She seems to like Trump, who knew?

The ugly came outside of Amfest when Candace Owens decided to make a video reaction to Ben Shapiro’s speech. She is almost at the point of calling Jews parasites and wishing Hitler had finished the job.

That will put more pressure on people like Megyn Kelly and others to say something about her - whether they will or not remains to be seen. If they ignore it, they’re cooked if they ever want to win an election again. Most Americans are not this extreme and will run screaming from this. Antisemitism is indeed all the rage on both sides, but all it will take is for Gavin Newsom to call it out to win over a whole bunch of voters, and how can the Right deny it with Candace still in their good graces?

By the end of the night, JD Vance was meant to pull the whole thing together and send people out on a high note. For many, he did just that. But for others, it was a murky response that seemed to brush off what Ben Shapiro introduced as vital to the Conservative movement.

That then elicited a variety of responses from both sides.

But later, in a piece in Unherd, JD Vance said the following:

So, to quote No Country for Old Men:
“It’s a mess, ain’t it, Sheriff?”
“Well, if it ain’t, it’ll do ‘til the mess gets here.”

As you know, I’m not technically a Conservative or strictly MAGA, so I have no business telling anyone how to run their movement. All I’ve been trying to do is help them defeat the Democrats because the future they promise is worse - or at least it seems to be. Things are changing fast, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, not just about the Left but now, about the Right.

The last thing MAGA needed was a Civil War. There are now two competing visions, not just for the GOP but for the MAGA movement. That’s one fracture too many, and you know what that means. That means 2028 could look a lot like 2016 was for the Democrats.

We’re still facing a ruling class that can’t stand the other half of the country, let alone understand them. The New York Times tried to report on Amfest objectively but couldn’t help themselves by the end and had to trash Charlie Kirk, even in death, lest they be accused of “normalizing a fascist”:

But Turning Point has long provided platforms for conspiracy theorists.

At a 2022 event, Mr. Kirk warmly introduced a featured speaker, Alex Jones, the Infowars host who falsely claimed that the 2012 massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax, and that family members of the victims were actors in a plot to enact extreme gun control legislation.

In June 2024, Ms. Owens was a speaker at a Turning Point Action conference, after she had begun claiming that the wife of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was a man. (The Macrons have sued Ms. Owens for “outlandish, defamatory and far-fetched fictions.”)

And Mr. Kirk himself promoted Mr. Trump’s conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats.

Saying the 2020 election was stolen is not a “conspiracy theory.” And we’ll leave it at that, because I’m writing something else about the 2020 election to post, hopefully, before Christmas. I didn’t want to leave you hanging with MAGA in the news.

Until later.