Conservative activist Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally for Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) at Generation Church Mesa Campus on Sept. 4, 2024.
TPUSA founder and conservative pundit Charlie Kirk used his platform on social media to spread racism following a tragedy that included the death of a family member of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt. 9-year-old Jaine Hunt died in the Central Texas flooding over the July 4 holiday weekend.
In the wake of the flooding in Kerr County and Camp Mystic, three hours away from Austin–and much farther away than from the second largest city in Texas, San Antonio– Austin Firefighters Association President Bob Nicks announced Tuesday that the union decided to hold a vote of no confidence against Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker over his decision not to send out crews before the flooding event.
The Facebook post on the AFA page suggested that Baker might have been responsible for some of the deaths (though they don’t speculate how many) by not sending out crews and for being incompetent in understanding reimbursement policies.
“I explained the reimbursement process to Chief Baker last week, and he failed to understand this very simple concept,” Nicks wrote.
Charlie Kirk decided to invoke racism
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally for Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) at Generation Church Mesa Campus on Sept. 4, 2024.
On the same day he was trying everything he could to keep his followers from discussing President Donald Trump’s DOJ choosing not to release information on Jeffrey Epstein, Kirk capitalized on that quote on his podcast.
Kirk said he believed Baker didn’t understand what the word “reimbursement” meant and suggested Baker was only hired for the position of fire chief because of his race, after the Barack Obama administration sued the city of Austin for racial discrimination in the fire department in 2014.
Kirk, with glee in his eye in the wake of a tragedy that cost the lives of 100+ people, was obviously trying to do a watered-down version (because he likes donations for his non-profit) of what Hispanic-nationalist Nick Fuentes does on his show, trying to pair the trope that a black man with power acted stupidly in an emergency, and shouldn’t have been allowed to be the chief to begin with.
“DEI kills, and the Texas tragedy is just the latest example,” Kirk, who doens’t believe healthcare is a right but thinks big government should be writing blank checks for fire crews to take care posted on X.
The truth of the matter is more complex. Even the AFA came out and wrote that the issue with Baker, has nothing to do with DEI, and denounced Kirk.
“The austin firefighters denounce Charlie Kirk or anyone that refers to Chief Baker as a DEI hire,” The AFA posted on X.
Per KXAN, the AFD and the AFA have conflicting beliefs about a “standing order” where the AFD put a halt on deployment requests during a time the state of Texas was tardy on $800,000 in reimbursements. (Yes, Baker, who has been the fire chief since 2018, knows what reimbursements are and has dealt with them for seven years in Texas.)
Because the city of Austin has a budget deficit, AFD was limiting their deployments on a case-by-case basis (because funds would not be reimbursed by the end of the fiscal year), somthing Baker admits he could have been more clear about.
Baker claims his decision not to send out crews before the unpredicted and historic flooding had to with his worry about the logistics of taking care of Austin, which was also being pummeled with rain and had its own flooding in the area to deal with.
Kirk decided to insert himself in Texas politics
Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk addresses the audience as he sits with Godspeak Calvary Chapel Pastor Rob McCoy in front of a capacity crowd in Newbury Park on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023.
The fight between Nicks and Baker could be monetary and political as well.
In defense of Baker, Austin myor Kirk Watson accused Nicks of politicizing the tragedy as a piece of buget negotiations and collective bargaining, as a new labor contract negotiation begins in September amid calls for
“I’m very disappointed in Bob,” Watson wrote. “In this awful time, he shouldn’t be politicizing this horrible loss by making it part of budget negotiations and the collective bargaining with the union. Unlike Bob, I actually talked to Chief Nim Kidd, the Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, over the weekend.
“In one of our talks, I asked Chief Kidd if he was getting all he needed from Austin and if there was anything else he needed. He characterized Austin’s response as “above and beyond.”
It’s shameful that Kirk decided to use the deaths of people like Hunt so he could try to make a point about racism. But that’s what his movement is about.
Jan 29, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs Clark Hunt looks on before the AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
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Jordan Sigler is a sports journalist. He writes about sports for Wisconsin Sports Heroics, ChiCitySports, and Gridiron Heroics. His craft has been nationally syndicated for Yardbarker, MSN, and Bleacher Report.
