The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley has canceled an occasion with conservative political commentator and activist Ben Shapiro — which was scheduled for the night of Wednesday, Sept. 10 — after studying that fellow conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been fatally shot earlier within the day.
Shapiro was set to seem on the library to debate his new e book, “Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America (and Her Critics),” on Wednesday evening.
The Reagan Presidential Basis and Institute, nevertheless, introduced the occasion’s cancelation after Kirk, 31, was shot and killed throughout a talking engagement in Utah.
“The Ronald Reagan Presidential Basis and Institute is saddened to listen to of occasions that befell at this time at Utah Valley College. Our prayers are with Charlie Kirk and his household,” the inspiration wrote on social media. “As a mark of respect, we’re cancelling our program and e book signing with Ben Shapiro this night.”
Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth group Turning Level USA, rose to prominence for confronting liberals in academia, finally profitable over an influential set of conservative financiers. He was an early backer of President Donald Trump, occurring to function a private aide to Donald Trump Jr. in the course of the elder Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign.
Quickly, Kirk was an everyday presence on cable TV, the place he leaned into the tradition wars and heaped reward on the then-president.
He was additionally a staunch defender of the Second Modification.
Shapiro and Kirk, in the meantime, operated throughout the identical political sphere. Shapiro stated on social media Wednesday that he was “completely surprised and heartbroken” about Kirk’s dying.
“Charlie was a very good man who believed in proper and fallacious, who stood by his Biblical values,” Shapiro stated. “All of us will miss him, and I can’t think about the ache of his lovely younger household, and all of us should pray for them. And we should decide up the baton the place Charlie left it, combating for the issues he believed in so passionately.”
The Reagan Basis stated a brand new date for Shapiro’s library occasion could be introduced sooner or later.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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