Turning Point USA Has Railed Against Masks, Then Co-Founder of the Group Died of COVID

Many Republican lawmakers have started to aggressively push the use of facial coverings to prevent COVID spread. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell even posted a video to his Twitter feed this week explaining why masks are effective.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Conservative groups are taking heed to the message. Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA has aggressively pushed against the use of face masks. On Wednesday, the college-focused group announced that the other co-founder, Bill Montgomery had died of coronavirus.

Kirk said in a statement to Politico, “I can’t put into words how saddened I am by the death of my dear friend Bill Montgomery.”

Montgomery was 80 years old. He was the financial backing behind the group that aimed at creating Conservative groups on High School and College campuses.

On Monday, Kirk had railed against face coverings. He said in a video, “The science around masks is very questionable. Very questionable. In fact, some people, some doctors, think that masks actually make you sicker…and actually more likely to be able to die sooner. A lot of people believe that.”

Charlie Kirk: "The science around masks is very questionable. Very questionable. In fact, some people, some doctors, think that masks actually make you sicker…and actually more likely to be able to die sooner. A lot of people believe that" pic.twitter.com/QDOOOt39VH

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) July 27, 2020

Turning Point has also used it’s Twitter feed to share memes about not wearing masks. One posted the day before Montgomery’s desk featured an image of Nicholas Cage. “Me not wearing a mask,” the since deleted meme read, “while a leftist screams at me from their car across the street.”