Ben Shapiro warned Thursday night on the stage of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest that the future of the conservative movement depends on a commitment to truth, arguing that grifters and frauds are putting both conservatism and the country at risk. “The future of the country relies on the future of the conservative movement,” Shapiro said. “It relies on what TPUSA defines as its core mission: freedom, free markets, and limited government.”  Shapiro argued that the right-wing hosts that have abandoned truth for conspiracies and dishonesty are undermining conservatism by offering “bile and despair.” “These people are frauds, and they are grifters,” Shapiro said. “And they are something worse: a danger to the only movement capable of stopping the Left from wrecking the country wholesale.” Shapiro outlined “five obligations” that prominent conservative voices owe their audience in a time of an “anarchic informational environment” where the legacy media is no longer the gatekeeper. The obligations, according to Shapiro, are truth, principle, responsibility, evidence, and solutions. “We owe you the truth,” Shapiro said. “That means we should not mislead you; it means we shouldn’t hide the ball; we shouldn’t be deliberately obscure about what we are telling you.” Shapiro referenced podcaster Candace Owens, accusing her of exploiting the assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk to push baseless conspiracies and attack TPUSA staff, adding that those with a platform have a “moral obligation” to call her out. “If Candace Owens decides to spend every day since the murder of Charlie Kirk casting aspersions at TPUSA and the people who work here…to spew absolutely baseless trash implicating everyone from French intelligence to Mossad to members of TPUSA in Charlie’s murder or a coverup in that murder…then we, as people with a microphone, have a moral obligation to call that out, by name.” Shapiro said that TPUSA and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, should have never “been put in the position to have to defend themselves against such specious and evil attacks, particularly in a time of mourning.” He added that some of the speakers who will take to the stage after him are “guilty of cowardice” for refusing to condemn the “vicious attacks.” “The fact that Candace has been vomiting all sorts of conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years on end while others fly cover for her is just as cowardly,” Shapiro said.  Shapiro went on to argue that personal relationships or emotional loyalty cannot excuse silence when public figures engage in wrongdoing, stressing that principle must come before friendship or coalition politics.  WATCH AMERICA FEST LIVE ON THE DAILY WIRE He also emphasized that commentators bear responsibility for the people they elevate and the ideas they mainstream, and the way they conduct their interviews. He cited Tucker Carlson’s platforming of Nick Fuentes.  “If you host a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of sh*t like Nick Fuentes – the Nick Fuentes who said that the Vice President of the United States is a ‘fat gay race traitor married to a jeet,’ the person who said that Charlie Kirk was a ‘retarded idiot’ and that he ‘took Turning Point USA and f*cked it…and that’s why it’s filled with Groypers’ – and you proceed to glaze him, you ought to own it,” Shapiro said.  He added that Charlie Kirk “despised Fuentes” because “he knew that Fuentes is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility.” Shapiro added that Carlson’s other guests include “pornographer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate” and “fake historian and Nazi apologist Daryl Cooper,” “Hosts are indeed responsible for the guests they choose and the questions they ask them,” Shapiro said. Shapiro went on to explain conservative hosts “obligation to truth” and evidence. Conservative voices must offer real solutions that improve people’s lives, he argued. “It is our job to make the lives of our audience better-informed, and just generally better,” Shapiro said. “We have a duty to propose solutions.” “We who speak to people on a regular basis have duties to you: the duty to speak the truth,” he said. “The duty to speak from principle, not personal feeling; the duty to take responsibility for our actions; the duty to provide you evidence — to do more than conspiracize or ‘just ask questions’; and the duty to posit real solutions.” “If we fail in those duties, you ought not listen to us.”

The suspect in the Brown University shooting has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a New Hampshire storage facility, according to Fox News. Police chief identifies Brown University shooting suspect in press conference after he’s found dead. pic.twitter.com/rK8R6ouaAh — Fox News (@FoxNews) December 19, 2025 Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Brown student and Portuguese national, whose last known address was in Miami. Valente was a legal permanent resident but not a U.S. citizen. Authorities believe the car used by the suspect also matches the vehicle used in the Monday killing of an MIT professor in his home, less than 50 miles from Brown University. This marks the end of a 6-day-long manhunt that spanned three states and involved local, federal, and state law enforcement. “I know this has been hard on all of us over the past five days,” Providence Mayor Smiley said at a Thursday night press conference. “Minutes have felt like hours, but the people of Providence have done what we’re best at – we’ve leaned on one another, come together and supported one another, and showed the nation what a tight knit community looks like.” “Tonight our Providence neighbors can breathe a little easier,” Smiley said. This is a developing story, refresh the page for updates.

Law enforcement is swarming a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, after locating an abandoned car linked to the Brown University shooting suspect. Authorities believe the identified license plate matches the vehicle used in the Monday killing of an MIT professor in his home, less than 50 miles from Brown University, according to CNN. Officers equipped with night vision and long rifles have surrounded the facility, and Fox News National Correspondent Brooke Taylor reports that local and federal law enforcement are preparing to enter the building after reviewing surveillance footage. Police were visible outside a building in Salem, New Hampshire. The activity was believed to be related to the Brown University shooting. Sources told NBC 10 earlier that the person of interest had been identified.https://t.co/rPZVMYxuU8 pic.twitter.com/miv8QBm5dF — NBC 10 WJAR (@NBC10) December 19, 2025 Sources told Fox News that video surveillance shows the suspect entering the facility, but it is currently unclear if he ever left. Police have obtained a warrant to search the facility, per the New York Times. #BREAKING: Sources on the ground tell me that the suspected shooter has a storage unit under his name, in the facility where the abandoned car was found in New Hampshire. Agents have entered the facility but NOT his unit. Video shows him going into the storage facility at some… — Brooke Taylor (@Brooketaylortv) December 19, 2025 The Salem Police Department issued an alert to residents regarding the police activity at the storage facility, stating they are assisting several federal agencies with “an active and ongoing investigation.” “At this time, there is no information indicating an imminent risk to the public or residents of Salem,” police said. “However, we encourage everyone to remain vigilant and exercise heightened caution.” Police are urging residents to report anyone who appears “out of place, unfamiliar to the area or behaving in a manner that seems unusual or suspicious.” The news conference on the Brown University shooting investigation, scheduled initially at 4 p.m. EST Thursday, has been delayed. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships This is a developing story, refresh the page for updates.

Whoopi Goldberg claimed on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s plan to give monetary bonuses to members of the military was effectively a bribe to ensure that they’d obey the president’s orders even if they were not necessarily lawful. Goldberg, during Thursday’s broadcast of ABC’s “The View,” first questioned whether or not troops would actually ever see that money — and then immediately insinuated that if they did see it, it would be solely because Trump was using it to buy their loyalty. WATCH: Whoopi doubts Trump is going to pay the troops his announced $1,776 bonus, but then claims it’s a bribe for them to back his plots: “What he’s doing is, he’s thinking, ‘if I make sure that the soldiers have what they need they’ll back me and what I want, see?” pic.twitter.com/DBmKx6IfEN — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 18, 2025 Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin began by saying she’d actually like to give Trump credit for offering bonuses — “warrior dividends” — to troops, but Goldberg quickly interrupted. “Let’s see if they get the — I want to see them get it first,” Goldberg said. Griffin went on to say that she’d prefer to see “smart policies” rather than “handouts,” and argued that it was unfair for money to only go to members of the military — particularly if the money was, as Trump said, coming from tariff revenue — that all Americans were hurting and in need of assistance. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Goldberg then pivoted to suggest that the reason Trump was singling out members of the armed forces had nothing to do with the notion that they’d earned it in service to the country, but rather because she believed they’d be more likely to do anything Trump wanted if he greased the wheels with a Christmas bonus. “What he’s doing is, he’s thinking, ‘If I make sure that the soldiers have what they need, they’ll back me in what I want, see?'” she said.

Turning Point USA Spokesman Andrew Kolvet said he has barely had time to grieve since Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September. Kolvet appeared as the first guest on The Daily Wire’s live coverage of AmericaFest from Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday. The TPUSA spokesman said that he has been so busy since Kirk’s death that he doesn’t know if he has had time to fully grieve the loss of his friend. “I think, in my own way, I’ve done as well as I can, but we’ve been working day-in-day-out, whether it was Charlie was assassinated and then we went straight into the memorial planning — and that was all-nighters to pull off that event in the six or seven days that we did,” Kolvet told The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan and Tim Rice. “Then we went straight into the tour, and then it’s just been one thing after another and planning for AmFest,” said Kolvet. “You know, what has it been like? I will say it is the first time in my life where I can genuinely say I can feel the prayers of strangers.” Kolvet also gave a preview of some of TPUSA’s plans for 2026. He said that the organization, as far as the midterm elections go, will primarily be focused on implementing the plans that Kirk had begun to put in place before his death. “Because we have not proven in the era of Trump that we can do special elections, we can do off-year elections. My hope is that when we have a national goal, 2026 midterms, that we’ll get more of these [low propensity] voters out to the polls to do the work that needs to be done,” said Kolvet. “And that’s what Charlie would be focused on. I know it because he already put that in motion.” The first day of the annual Turning Point USA conference is loaded with major names in media, such as The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro and Michael Knowles. Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, is scheduled to give the first speech of the conference. Follow along with The Daily Wire’s live coverage here and live blog here.