Dean Withers

Dean Withers (born 2003 or 2004) is an American liberal commentator and live streamer on TikTok and YouTube.^[1] He gained prominence starting in 2023 for challenging conservative viewpoints on societal issues through debates shared via TikTok. He has been featured on Jubilee Media's YouTube series Surrounded, where he has engaged in political debates with conservatives.

Early life

Withers was born in 2003 or 2004.^[2] He grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado,^[3] with conservative family members, leading him to hold conservative views in his early life.^[2][4][5] Withers has said that his father is an engineer, his mother was often unemployed, and that he has two older siblings. He has also said that his parents divorced during his adolescence, that his family experienced financial difficulties, and that he attended church three times a week and a private Catholic school from preschool through eighth grade. After school, he played video games like Fortnite and Call of Duty. Although he could not yet vote, he considered himself a supporter of Donald Trump. He later shared that this conservative environment pushed him to learn about the opposing political spectrum which caused his shift toward a liberal political ideology.^[2] He is agnostic, but stated he was raised Catholic.^[6]

Career

After graduating from Grand Junction High School, Withers began posting political content on social media in 2022 on issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights.^[2] Leading up to the 2024 United States presidential election, Jubilee Media featured Withers in two episodes of their Surrounded series on YouTube. He was one of 25 liberal college students who debated Charlie Kirk in the first episode and later returned to debate 20 Trump supporters in another episode.^[4]

In 2024, shortly after one of his appearances in a Jubilee episode where he debated Trump supporters, he was criticized online when racist and homophobic messages from 2019 and 2022 were uncovered. Withers later confirmed the messages were real and issued an apology.^[7]

Following an online dispute in July 2025, Withers was accused of doxing another content creator and encouraging viewers to contact Child Protective Services (CPS) on a livestream. He denied doxing the creator, stating he had only shared publicly available information.^[8]

Upon learning of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, Withers cried during his livestream.^[1][9] His reaction went viral and generated criticism from some of his audience. In response, Withers posted a video in which he explained "...I think Charlie Kirk was a bad person...but does that mean I think he deserves to lose his life? No."^[9] He said "I am sad, distraught," and that gun violence "is always disgusting, always vile and always abhorrent".^[10][9][1]

In April 2026, Withers alleged that CBS News had filmed a debate with him in Washington, D.C. involving a MAGA influencer, but never aired the segment. He claimed Bari Weiss, who took over CBS News in October 2025, had shelved the production. CBS did not publicly respond to his claims.^[11][12]

In August 2026, various unsubstantiated rumors of sexual misconduct by Withers were circulated online, including an allegation that he had sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl. The allegation included screenshots of supposed direct messages between Withers and the alleged victim which showed signs of possible fabrication. Withers publicly denied the allegation, sharing a video from a young girl with no connection to Withers who claimed that her photos were used by the alleged victim to impersonate her. Withers also stated that he had received death threats and was informed of a bomb threat by his local police department.^[13]