The second stop on Turning Point USA’s “This Is the Turning Point” college tour didn’t go so well April 14.
Erika Kirk cancelled her appearance at her own organization’s event, citing security concerns, but U.S. Vice President JD Vance attended and spoke at the event in Akins Ford Arena at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Photo frm a social media post taken inside the UGA arena as the TPUSA event began.
By some accounts, there may have been more protesters outside the arena than participants inside the arena. Against a seating capacity of 8,500, only about 1,000 people were said to be in attendance. Photos of the event show vast areas of unoccupied seats.
On April 2, the first stop on the controversial college tour drew less than 1,400 people to Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. That auditorium is much smaller than the one at UGA and was comfortably full, according to published reports.
At the GWU event, Kirk spoke with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Kirk told GWU students her husband “gave his life” for free speech and told the conservative students in the crowd they must continue to “speak with truth” against liberal classmates who try to push false narratives, according to the GW Hatchet.
Some critics charged Erika Kirk did not want to appear at the University of Georgia event because attendance was so small. She issued a statement saying her family “takes seriously” threats against her security and she decided at the last minute not to appear.
Whatever those security threats were, they were not enough to dissuade the vice president from appearing on stage.
According to flagpole, “Vance was heckled during an on-stage interview, with one person shouting, ‘Jesus Christ does not support genocide!’”
He replied: “I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK. I understand.”
Attendees hold up a large image of U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s face as he takes the stage during a Turning Points USA event in the Akins Ford Arena on the campus of the University of Georgia on April 14, 2026, in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Vance was fresh back from unsuccessful negotiations with Iran to end the war started by Trump three weeks earlier. Vance also recently made a trip to Hungary to support authoritarian President Viktor Orban, who this weekend was defeated in his reelection bid.
During a question-and-answer time with students, Vance described President Donald Trump’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein as a “hoax,” according to the Red and Black.
“This democratic idea that somehow (Trump) was Epstein’s best friend, that is a hoax,” Vance said.
Donald Trump, Melania Trump and Mar-a-Lago appear in the latest batch of Epstein Files 38,000 times, according to The New York Times.
Outside the UGA arena, hundreds of protesters gathered and marched.
The next stop of the six-campus tour is Ohio State University April 21 with speakers Vivek Ramaswamy, Lawrence Jones and Savannah Chrisley, followed by Baylor University April 22 with Donald Trump Jr., Tom Homan and Benny Johnson; then the University of Idaho April 28 with guests Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles.
BNG has reported extensively on the controversy surrounding TPUSA’s planned visit to Baylor, a Baptist-affiliated school. Students petitioned and were granted the right to host a counter event on campus the same day.
The Baylor TPUSA event will be held in Waco Hall, which has a seating capacity of about 2,400.
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