Filed under: Anti-fascist, Southwest, The Grouch
Content Warning: Video contains racial slurs and language.
Update: Turning Point USA has issued a statement saying that Riley Grisar has been removed from the organization. We’ve also removed information about Riley’s father as it appears to be outdated.
A video sent to It’s Going Down and already going viral on various Facebook pages, shows the leader of the Las Vegas chapter of Turning Point USA, Riley Grisar, along with a young woman screaming about how they are going to “Rule the Country.” They then go on to yell, “White power! Fuck the n*****s!” A third voice, coming from the person making the video then yells, “Yeah, fuck em!”
Multiple students who went to school with Grisar confirmed on Twitter that it is indeed him. It is unclear as to when the video was recorded, however Grisar is seen wearing a Trump shirt and multiple people on Twitter claiming to be former classmates imply the video was filmed in high school, between 2016 and 2017.
From father’s Twitter account.
Also in the video, Grisar can been seen making the Alt-Right hand sign, a sign which Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk has also been photographed making, along with a variety of neo-Nazi, Alt-right, and white nationalist leaders from Milo Yiannapolous who has worked with Turning Point USA, Richard Spencer who helped organize Unite the Right in Charlottesville, to the Christchurch mass shooter, who also praised the former Communications Director of Turning Point USA, Candace Owens in his manifesto which argued that white people are being systematically displaced.
Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk making Alt-Right “OK” Hand Symbol
On May 1st, Grisar’s chapter of Turning Point USA was reported on by Campus Reform, a New Right online publication heavily linked to Turning Point USA. Campus Reform reported that an event by the Turning Point chapter was “attacked” by “leftists” who attacked their make shift “Wall” and knocked items off their table. The story soon spread to other far-Right media outlets as yet another example of “the Left” attacking “free speech.” Campus Reform managing editor and author of the article Jon Street, who also writes heavily about left-wing groups on campus, quoted Grisar saying the following:
“We had the booth out for like two hours,” Grisar told Campus Reform, “and it was just after noon when it got a lot more hostile. Instead of just having one or two people come up, we started having a crowd approaching 100 people surrounding us. There was chanting, taunting…and I could see that it was looking like a lot of guys were going to get very hostile on the other side.”
UNLV IS VIOLENT. UNLV IS NOT A SAFE PLACE FOR EDUCATION . HATE HAPPENS SO MUCH ON THIS CAMPUS. PLEASE STAY SAFE. pic.twitter.com/M2UU1STLEG
— Erotica💋 (@bitcherotica) April 29, 2019
Screenshots sent to It’s Going Down show Grisar to be making the Alt-Right “Ok” hand sign at the “Build the Wall” rally and a photo was also taken by a student on Twitter of Grisar doing the hand sign as well. Clearly, Grisar racist Alt-Right views seem to be just as deep as they were when we recorded the racist video filled with racial slurs.
Making Alt-Right hand sign at Turning Point USA event.
For years, Turning Point USA has been tied to the Alt-Right and seen a succession of its staff be fired after racist and anti-Black text messages were discovered. Several months ago, it was also discovered that white nationalist groups like Identity Evropa, now rebranded as the American Identity Movement, were also working to infiltrate the organization in various chapters across the US. Former Communications Director Candace Owens also made a variety of comments that seemed to support Hitler and also while testifying in front of Congress, denied the existence of white nationalism, a move which caused some chapters to call for her to step down, which Owens did in early May, calling it a “graduation.”
The group is also deeply tied to the Trump Administration. TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk's rich father worked for Trump and Kirk has often met with Trump and interviewed him at events like CPAC. https://t.co/VQxICRJspC
— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) May 10, 2019
Turning Point USA is deeply tied to the Trump administration, the yearly CPAC conference, Fox News pundits, and the Republican establishment. People associated with each routinely speak at Turning Point USA events and TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk has interviewed Donald Trump numerous times.
Shortly after this article was published, Turning Point USA issued a statement saying that Grisar had been removed from the organization.