In a memorial statement for Montgomery, Turning Point USA praised his role in Kirk’s elevation and organization, calling him the group’s “first believer and senior advisor”, although Montgomery often described himself as a co-founder.
Charlie Kirk said in an additional statement to POLITICO: “I cannot express in words how sad I am at the death of my dear friend Bill Montgomery.”
Before starting Turning Point with Kirk, Montgomery, who lived in Illinois, worked in marketing, publishing, restaurants, and was a business development consultant.
A 2015 National Journal story recounted how Montgomery met Kirk when he was 18 and urged him not to go to college, but told him after a speech at Benedictine University: “I don’t know you, but you need to start an organization. to reach young people with your message. ” So, the following month, the two launched Turning Point together.
“It was Bill and Charlie’s chance meeting in 2012, along with Bill’s generosity and willingness to invest in an inexperienced and unconnected 18-year-old who gave birth to the dream that would one day become Turning Point USA” Turning Point said.
In Maggio’s video, he said one of Montgomery’s goals was to get Kirk, a close ally of Donald Trump Jr., to be elected president one day. Maggio called Montgomery “a conservative from start to finish” who “wore it as a badge of honor”.
Montgomery is survived by his widow Edie, a son, and a daughter.
Over the course of the pandemic, representatives from Turning Point USA have downplayed the impact of the coronavirus on public life.
In two previous episodes of his podcast, on March 16 and April 23, Kirk stated that he believed that the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions should be quarantined. Outside of that, however, he has questioned the vast majority of public health proposals to limit the spread of the community. In the Sunday edition of his podcast, Kirk said: “Don’t make me wear a mask, it’s that simple. I will not, I am not.
“[E]Every time I walk into one of these grocery stores, ‘Where’s your mask?’ I mean, well, first of all, the science around masks is very questionable, very questionable, ”he said. “In fact, some people, some doctors think that masks really make you sick and less likely to get oxygen and more likely to get infected, and less likely to fight the virus, and actually more likely to be able to die sooner.
“Many people believe that. I met many doctors who hold that opinion, “added Kirk. “Secondly, we have a big civil liberty problem here. Why do you have the authority to tell me what I can and cannot do with my body? I thought it was ‘my body, my choice.’ “
The latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control state that the use of cloth face masks has been shown to be effective in preventing a person infected with Covid-19 from transmitting the disease to others and, consequently, has resulted in less spread of the community. As a result, several states and cities have passed mask ordinances.
Kirk was briefly banned from Twitter in late March for falsely claiming the hydroxychloroquine antimalarial drug was “100% effective” in treating the coronavirus. He has also lobbied to quickly reopen the nation’s economy, although in March he said young people were at risk from the virus and should be careful to avoid large gatherings.
In late June, Trump spoke to a packed audience of young Turning Point supporters at a megachurch in Phoenix, where he was introduced by Kirk. Few people in the audience practiced social distancing or wearing masks, although the organization gave masks to everyone who wanted one and provided socially distanced seats on the upper level of the church.
In a statement responding to questions about Kirk’s comments on the masks, a spokesman for him said: “Charlie has long said that if you are in high-risk cohorts, that is, the elderly and those with comorbidities or underlying health problems, of which Bill was a part of both cohorts, both groups, then he must take all possible precautions. If they had argued, Charlie would have recommended that he be quarantined. Charlie has questioned the effectiveness of the masks for low-risk groups, including school-age children, under-60s in good health.
“The mainstream media wants to censor dissenting voices and robust debate and that’s really what Charlie stands for, for robust debate. Because so many lives and really the whole country is involved, we need that debate more than ever. ”
