Brock Turner Is Not Speaking At The RNC

Before we go any further: Convicted rapist Brock Turner will not be speaking at this year's Republican National Convention.

The rumor, started on Twitter by comedian Jena Friedman, trended on the social media site yesterday. The RNC's guest list includes a number of divisive and well-meme'd people, such as Ken and Karen, the St. Louis gun couple and the MAGA-hat wearing teen from the January 2019 viral video of a confrontation with Native American activists, which made Friedman's joke believable to many.

Friedman spent the afternoon making mock announcements about the RNC, tweeting that other controversial figures, like the "bat who gave the world COVID," would share words with Republican delegates. However, it was the Brock Turner announcement that caught Twitter's attention.

"BREAKING NEWS: Brock Turner, Stanford Student Athlete Who Assaulted Unconscious Woman, Will Speak At RNC," Friedman tweeted.

Additionally, Friedman also "announced" that "Melania Trump's hand" would be speaking at the Democratic National Convention. Although, no one really seemed to take much notice of that.

I can’t wait for Melania’s hand to speak #DemocraticConvention

— Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) August 18, 2020

BREAKING NEWS: Bat Who Gave The World Covid Will Speak At RNC

— Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) August 18, 2020

Her tweets followed the news that Mark and Patricia McCloskey, also known as the St. Louis Gun Couple, would speak at the RNC. Earlier this summer, the armed couple became a meme after pointing their guns at Black Lives Matter protesters from the lawn of their palazzo estate. Joining them, another controversial figure: Nick Sandmann, the Covington high school teen recorded silently standing before a group of Native American protesters, which many interpreted as antagonistic. Sandmann later sued the Washington Post and CNN over coverage of the incident.

Friedman's tweets, however, didn't go over as well as she hoped. Because of the sensational nature of the speakers, many took her tweets as fact.

When I first read that convicted rapist Brock Turner was speaking at the RNC, it was such a believable possibility that I didn’t even realize it was a joke.

— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) August 18, 2020

Others just plain old did not like the joke, with many saying that making light of Brock Turner's rape conviction diminishes the experience of his victim and the severity of his crime.

Brock Turner is not speaking at the RNC convention.

He was asked but refused, saying there would be too many sex offenders in the room and he doesn't like having competition. https://t.co/YynY4I4TcA

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 18, 2020

To see Brock Turner trending instead of Chanel Miller whose paperback of "Know My Name" is out today is a sad irony to me.

She's had to don "unconscious women" or "emily doe" for long enough, let's not continue to do this.

Let's uplift her name, spirit, book instead. https://t.co/FsO5Z4p1iH

— Julie Ae Kim (@julieaekim) August 18, 2020

Friedman responded to the backlash on Twitter, saying that people did not understand satire and that "some Republicans are more upset with my tweet than with a rapist being President." In the end, she posted a screenshot of her Twitter profile, which asks followers not to quote her. Good advice.

pic.twitter.com/hp2JZkkF7w

— Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) August 19, 2020

In 2016, Turner was convicted of the rape of an intoxicated Stanford University student. The charges included assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. He served three months of a six-month prison sentence.