“Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Leaves Liberty University Think Tank”
“The Falkirk Center, named for its founders, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk, was the center of evangelical Trumpism. Now, both are gone.” 3/17/21 1/ nytimes.com/2021/03/16/us/…
“The Falkirk Center, named for its founders, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk, was the center of evangelical Trumpism. Now, both are gone.” 3/17/21 1/ nytimes.com/2021/03/16/us/…
“When the Falkirk Center think tank was established at Liberty University in Virginia in 2019, it quickly became the de facto headquarters of evangelical Trumpism on a campus that had risen to national prominence.” 2/
“Its fellows included Sebastian Gorka, the former aide to President Donald J. Trump. Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s lawyer, appeared on a Falkirk podcast.” 3/
“Now, less than two years later, Falkirk’s high-profile founders are gone, and Liberty is rethinking the center’s future in a post-Trump world.” 4/
“The university quietly opted last fall not to renew the contract of Charlie Kirk, the combative young conservative activist who started the Falkirk Center with Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of Liberty’s founder.” 5/
“Mr. Falwell resigned as university president in August in the wake of a multipronged scandal that included allegations of sexual impropriety.” 6/
“In its short life, the Falkirk Center has drawn attention for its aggressive tone & political advocacy. It is ‘probably the most important institution in the evangelical world that was carrying water 4 Trump over the last few years,’” per a historian at an evangelical school. 7/
“The Falkirk Center was intended to have ‘massive culture influence,’ its executive director, Ryan Helfenbein, told the school newspaper soon after the center’s launch. It became an attractive stopping point for some of Mr. Trump’s high-profile evangelical supporters, … 8/
… many of whom were freelance media figures who benefited from the sheen of a university-based position.” [In other words, it was used for propaganda] 9/
“Past and present ‘fellows’ [🙄] have included Mr. Gorka, the radio host Eric Metaxas, and the former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis. Mr. Giuliani appeared on a podcast episode titled ‘Is the Election Really Over?’ that aired the week after the election.” 10/
“The university has quietly made other changes to the Falkirk Center’s profile in recent months. Mr. Gorka, Ms. Ellis and the commentator David Harris Jr. are no longer fellows. Neither is Mr. Kirk’s fiancée, Erika Frantzve, an entrepreneur and 2012 Miss Arizona USA winner.” 11/
“Scott Lamb, Liberty’s senior vice president for university communications, said he personally made the decision not to renew the contract. ‘We gave it a lot of thought,” he said, ‘& we decided to allocate our resources in different ways than that partnership with Charlie.’” 12/
Um, why did Liberty U get a $900k contract to sell jet fuel to the Pentagon?! Article below by @MikeCiandella cc: @SenWhitehouse @RonWyden 13/ theblaze.com/news/liberty-u… 
Thank you for the tip about the Pentagon contract, @MadMerlin5! 14/
https://twitter.com/madmerlin5/status/1440775662462115840
Here I thought this was just going to be a thread about how Charlie Kirk, et al. created a fake think tank & called themselves “fellows” to fool people into taking them seriously. (The “think tank” was called “FalKirk” by the way. Get it? Like Bennifer except Falwell & Kirk.) 15/
This is the photo that did in evangelical leader Jerry Falwell. There was something about a pool boy too. I can’t remember. 16/
https://twitter.com/helenkennedy/status/1291509408669880321
Per the article in post 1, “The FalKirk Center will be renamed the Standing for Freedom Center — or the Freedom Center, for short.” Poor Charlie. 17/
18/ “Liberty University sues Jerry Falwell Jr. over sex scandal, seeks tens of millions in damages” - 4/16/21
[When you lie down with pigs…] foxnews.com/us/liberty-uni…
[When you lie down with pigs…] foxnews.com/us/liberty-uni…
19/ 12/20/20 religionnews.com/2020/12/30/stu…
20/ Article in post 1 by @publicroad
22/ In case u thought @LibertyU had actually cleaned up it’s act, meet the new “fellows”… (The Falkirk Center has been renamed “Standing for Freedom Center”) h/t @mcbakerar
23/ Link for post 22. liberty.edu/news/2021/04/1…
24/ From the good ole FalKirk days…
https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1340867446669004800
25/ Poor @JennaEllisEsq. She, too, was a “fellow” at the FalKirk center “think tank” at @LibertyU. Unfortunately, I’m sure she will bounce back.
https://twitter.com/urbanachievr/status/1299463556635783168
26/ @LibertyU referred “to the Falkirk Center as a ‘think tank,’ although it…produced no traditional scholarship or academic research. Instead, it produce[d] a podcast & videos on hot-button political & cultural topics, and [was] known for its aggressive social media presence.”
27/ The FalKirk center, which was “funded and owned by the university [which got that $900k Pentagon contract for “fuel”], also placed at least $50k worth of political ads on Facebook promoting …Trump & other Republican candidates in the run-up to the election last fall…”
28/ To see what @charliekirk11 has been up to since the fall of his “think tank” gig, here’s a sourced thread re: his new social media gig with Jack Posobiec who spread the bogus (and dangerous) #Pizzagate conspiracy theory. threadreaderapp.com/thread/1439644…
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