MSNBC edits column after Turning Point USA sends cease-and-desist letter blasting 'defamatory' comment

MSNBC made changes to a column published on its website after Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk announced he had sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing the network of making "defamatory statements" about his group.

MSNBC opinion columnist Julio Ricardo Varela wrote a scathing article on Jan. 7 targeting freshman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., accusing her and other pro-Trump Hispanic Americans of "provid[ing] cover for their white nationalist allies." 

While referring to Luna's past work with Turning Point USA, Varela wrote she "has worked with what I consider to be a MAGA white supremacist cult: Turning Point USA."

"MSNBC attacked Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and slandered Turning Point USA as a ‘MAGA white supremacist cult,’" Kirk tweeted Friday. "TPUSA's legal team has issued a Cease and Desist demanding that MSNBC immediately issue a retraction & apology for platforming these reckless and defamatory statements."

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The cease-and-desist letter, sent Tuesday to Varela and NBCUniversal's general counsel, demanded the retraction to be made "no later than January 12, 2023," threatening to "take all steps necessary to protect our rights, including pursuing all available legal remedies, seeking monetary and non-monetary damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys' fees and costs." 

"TPUSA, our students, our supporters, and our alumni like Rep. Paulina Luna will not put up with MSNBC and woke contributors like Julio Ricardo Varela when they slander us and our movement," Kirk said. "We will advance this legally until we receive a full retraction and apology."

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After Fox News Digital reached out to MSNBC and NBC News for comment, MSNBC softened its language in the column, which now reads Luna "has worked with Turning Point USA, whose founder Charlie Kirk has expressed concern over the ‘diminishing and decreasing white demographics in America,’ and pushes the white nationalist belief of great replacement theory."

An "update" was also added at the top of Varela's column, reading: "This article has been updated to clarify Turning Point USA’s connections to white nationalist beliefs."

In a statement to Fox News, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said "We're happy to see that MSNBC has revised its grossly defamatory statements — an admission of guilt — but the time for half-apologies is over. Changing words around and citing the far-left activist organization Media Matters isn't good enough for any 'mainstream' news outlet. TPUSA will continue fighting this legally until they issue a full retraction and apology, or otherwise admit they've become nothing but hack propagandists."

MSNBC and NBC News did not comment. 

This isn't the first time Turning Point USA was attacked by the legacy media. In July, "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg falsely accused the group of "letting in" neo-Nazis, who showed up outside to protest its Student Action Summit event. 

Following a cease-and-desist letter sent to ABC News, "The View" was forced to issue multiple on-air retractions and apologies. 

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In an interview with Fox News Digital, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said she was "disgusted" by the MSNBC "hit piece" about her. 

"The reason I am conservative and the reason I am supportive of President Trump is because his policy positions are something that I support. And I find it interesting that these same outlets that are trying to say that we are providing cover for this, quote unquote ‘white nationalist movement,’ not only is it insulting — one, me being a minority woman that's a veteran as well, but also two, they're failing to call out very high-profile elected officials that made very derogatory and stereotypical comments about Hispanics to include the first lady, Jill Biden. We all know that she referenced us as ‘breakfast tacos’ and Nancy Pelosi saying that if we don't allow illegals here, 'Who's going to pick the crops?' I mean, you want to call out bigotry and racism or stereotypes, let's start there. But to hit me on the fact that I'm a conservative and then act as if I'm providing cover for these people, I mean, it just — it just goes to show how much of a threat conservative minorities really are."

Luna called out the "pattern" by legacy media that has been hostile to conservative minorities.

"Starting in 2016, you saw the rise of the largest voting minority in the country now becoming Hispanic Americans, specifically those of Mexican descent," Luna said. "What I find interesting is that in 2016 and then in 2020, the very progressive left that likes to many times suppress and control minorities whether you are Black or Hispanic, did not like the fact that there were those of us that were stepping outside of their groupthink mentality and saying, 'Hey, look, we don't agree with this. This is a serious problem.'"

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She continued: "Anyone that is Hispanic will tell you that we're not just monolithic, we're not just one color, and that a lot of times… you can have one sibling or family member that might be whiter skin or dark skin, but we don't look at that when we're engaged with one another… It's completely divisive and I refuse to let that be the narrative that shapes my message to this country, that shapes my message to younger men and women that are conservative and are minorities and are wanting to embrace our ideologies. And I think that these outlets should be called out on their hypocrisy because it's wrong."