Vice President JD Vance hailed Charlie Kirk as a “joyful warrior for our country” as a visitor host on the slain conservative activist’s podcast on Monday.
Paying tribute to Kirk, the veep launched himself to a web-based viewers that swelled to almost 750,000 by saying: “I’m filling in for a person who cannot be filled in for.”
“We owe something to Charlie. He was a joyful warrior for our country. He loved America,” Vance stated. “He devoted himself tirelessly to making our country a better place.”
Vance mentioned Kirk’s conservative legacy for about two hours with a forged of MAGA A-listers and Trump administration officers together with Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and hardline coverage maven Stephen Miller.
US Vice President JD Vance hosts an episode of the Charlie Kirk Present within the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing on the White Home campus in Washington, DC, on September 15, 2025. (Picture by DOUG MILLS/POOL/AFP through Getty Photos)
Echoing remarks of President Trump, Vance averted any trace of an olive department to Democrats who’ve additionally just lately been victims of political violence and ominously warned of a coming crackdown on the “left-wing extremism” they blame for the homicide of Kirk.
“We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years and is part of the reason I believe Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet,” Vance stated. “We’re gonna talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity.”
Kirk, who constructed his Turning Level USA group into a robust motion for younger conservatives, was shot and killed final week by a sniper throughout an look at Utah Valley College in Orem, close to Salt Lake Metropolis.
Authorities have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, of Washington, Utah, with Kirk’s homicide. Police haven’t revealed a motive however Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has stated the suspect was steeped in “leftist ideology,” with out elaborating.
Vance, 41, says he was a private good friend of Kirk and credit the influencer with boosting his meteoric rise in Republican politics to win Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat after which the nomination as Trump’s high lieutenant.
He skipped the Sept. 11 memorial at Floor Zero in decrease Manhattan to journey to Utah to console Kirk’s grieving widow, Erika, and accompany Kirk’s physique again to his hometown of Phoenix.
“What an honor it was for me and my family to be welcomed into the Kirk inner circle in their moment of grief,” Vance stated.
JD Vance, proper, speaks at a marketing campaign occasion as Turning Level USA Founder Charlie Kirk, left, listens Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Picture/Ross D. Franklin)
Trump and Vance each plan to talk at a a memorial for Kirk on Sunday at State Farm Stadium outdoors Phoenix, the place the Arizona Cardinals play.
The podcast look got here because the Kirk killing continues to reverberate by the American political and cultural panorama.
The Trump administration has requested Congress to allocate at the least $58 million extra to beef up safety for officers whereas Home and Senate leaders are discussing higher defend lawmakers.
Washington Submit columnist Karen Attiah introduced Monday she was fired for her put up on social media quoting Kirk’s assault on a number of outstanding Black girls leaders, whom he stated lacked the “brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.”
The Submit has not commented on the dismissal of Attiah, who was the paper’s solely Black workers opinion columnist.
