Vice President JD Vance hailed Charlie Kirk as a “joyful warrior for our country” as a guest host on the slain conservative activist’s podcast on Monday.
Paying tribute to Kirk, the veep introduced himself to an online audience that swelled to nearly 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 said. “He devoted himself tirelessly to making our country a better place.”
Vance discussed Kirk’s conservative legacy for about two hours with a cast of MAGA A-listers and Trump administration officials including Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and hardline policy maven Stephen Miller.
Echoing remarks of President Trump, Vance avoided any hint of an olive branch to Democrats who have also recently been victims of political violence and ominously warned of a coming crackdown on the “left-wing extremism” they blame for the murder 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 said. “We’re gonna talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity.”
Kirk, who built his Turning Point USA organization into a powerful movement for young conservatives, was shot and killed last week by a sniper during an appearance at Utah Valley University in Orem, near Salt Lake City.
Authorities have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, of Washington, Utah, with Kirk’s murder. Police haven’t revealed a motive but Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has said the suspect was steeped in “leftist ideology,” without elaborating.
Vance, 41, says he was a personal friend of Kirk and credits the influencer with boosting his meteoric rise in Republican politics to win Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat and then the nomination as Trump’s top lieutenant.
He skipped the Sept. 11 memorial at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan to journey to Utah to console Kirk’s grieving widow, Erika, and accompany Kirk’s body back 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 said.
Trump and Vance both plan to speak at a a memorial for Kirk on Sunday at State Farm Stadium outside Phoenix, where the Arizona Cardinals play.
The podcast appearance came as the Kirk killing continues to reverberate through the American political and cultural landscape.
The Trump administration has asked Congress to allocate at least $58 million more to beef up security for officials while House and Senate leaders are discussing how to better protect lawmakers.
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah announced Monday she was fired for her post on social media quoting Kirk’s attack on several prominent Black women leaders, whom he said lacked the “brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.”
The Post has not commented on the dismissal of Attiah, who was the paper’s only Black staff opinion columnist.
