This weekend, Utah Rep. Burgess Owens is a scheduled speaker at the right-wing “America Fest 2021″ conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The event is sponsored by Turning Point USA and billed as “the largest celebration of our constitutional rights and freedoms.”
The conference lineup is a who’s who of right-wing and MAGA luminaries, including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump Jr., Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The event will also feature a concert by Lee Greenwood, a musician famous for his song “God Bless the USA.”
Turning Point USA announced Wednesday that Kyle Rittenhouse would also be joining the lineup.
Rittenhouse is the teenager who was acquitted of all charges after he traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin and fatally shot two men and wounded a third during racial justice protests in August of 2020. He has become a sort of folk hero among the political right and Second Amendment advocates.
Rittenhouse is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion titled “Kenosha After Dark.”
Owens’ office did not respond to a request for comment about being included in the conference lineup with Rittenhouse.
In October, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk held an event in Idaho where a member of the audience asked, “When do we get to use the guns?”
“That’s not a joke. I’m not saying it like that. I mean, literally, where’s the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” he asked Kirk, referring to the “Big Lie” — a right-wing conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
The crowd cheered his remarks, but Kirk gave a lukewarm rebuke to the man’s comments.
”You’re playing into all their plans, and they’re trying to make you do this. They’re trying to make you do something that will be violent that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties, the likes of which we have never seen,” Kirk replied.
