Pentagon official denies report of Charlie Kirk military recruitment drive | Gun Violence News– www.aljazeera.com
Source Link
Excerpt:
An NBC news report said the military planned to invoke the activist’s memory to recruit a ‘generation of warriors’.
The United States Department of Defense has denied reports that it plans to launch a recruiting drive to honour the legacy of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at a Utah university event.
US network NBC first reported the news on Thursday, citing two officials familiar with the matter, but a Pentagon spokesperson quickly dispelled the report to Fox News.
NBC said the Pentagon was debating slogans such as “Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors” as part of its campaign drive, although Kirk himself was not a military veteran.
The military also hoped to work with Kirk’s political organisation, Turning Point USA, as part of its recruitment drive, the story said.
Turning Point was credited with helping US President Donald Trump win at the polls in 2024 through its work with young voters on high school and university campuses.
“This is not happening,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told Fox News later on Thursday.
Wilson blasted NBC for using anonymous sources to publish “false claims” that were “100 percent wrong”, according to the Fox News report.
The two unnamed Pentagon officials in the NBC report said the recruitment plan had been met with resistance from “some Pentagon leaders” who feared they would be seen as capitalising on Kirk’s murder.