DALLAS — Vice President JD Vance reflected on his friendship with Charlie Kirk on the first anniversary of his assassination Thursday — and credited his widow Erika’s heartbreaking remarks to him immediately after the shooting with inspiring the second couple to have a fourth child this year.
Vance recalled forming a quick bond with Kirk in 2018 or 2019 when they first met at Fox News’ studios — crediting Kirk, the founder of conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA, with being an early supporter of his 2022 Ohio Senate campaign and later inspiring him to be vocal about his Christian faith.
“I just immediately recognize this is a guy who sees the world in the same way that I do. This is a guy who recognizes that the purpose of a political party is to make people’s lives better. It’s not to serve these abstractions. It’s not to repeat slogans that have been repeated for years,” Vance said in an appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”
“As much as we might agree with the underlying substance of some of those cliches, it’s to make people’s lives better and to build a kind of country where young men can become virtuous husbands and fathers and raise good families, and where young women can become virtuous wives and mothers and also raise good families.”
When he ran for Senate, “it was like my mom, my sister, my dog, and then Charlie Kirk was I think the fourth person to support me,” Vance joked.
Vance’s bond with Kirk, who died at age 31 when he was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University, was so strong that he escorted his body from Utah to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two after the shocking death.
“I think probably this moment had more impact on me than it did on Usha. But when Erika looked at us and she was crying and upset — and this was one of the first conversations I had with her after Charlie’s death — and she said, ‘I wish we had more babies together.’ And that hit me like a ton of bricks, man,” Vance told the podcast’s three hosts.
Vance said the tragic utterance made him consider that “if we get to the point where we’re 50, 60 and those years have passed us by, I’m never going to be able to go back in time and make a different decision.
“And I think, at least for me, it’s a big part of the reason why I was so enthusiastic about having another kid. And so now we hold little Alec who’s six weeks old, and I can’t help but think of that connection to that moment.”
He added: “There’s no silver lining to Charlie’s death. It’s a tragedy. It’s terrible. It left a massive hole in the country. It left a massive hole in my heart, in my personal life. But there are these little rays of sunshine.”
Vance, the heir apparent to President Trump in the 2028 presidential election, said he was thinking of his friend as he prepared to speak Thursday night at the Republican midterm convention.
“I’m giving this big speech at the Republican midterm convention tonight, and I remember the first time I gave a speech like this. Of course, it was at the convention for the general election in 2024, and Charlie was down there, like looking up at me, cheering for me,” he recalled.
“In politics, obviously people have big egos, and there are people who are like, ‘Oh, this guy’s been in politics for a couple of years, and now he’s the vice presidential candidate.’ There’s like a little bit of jealousy. Charlie just never had that. Charlie was always just the biggest fan of everybody.”
Vance said he believed that a significant part of Kirk’s legacy will be his open discussion of religious belief and that “showing as opposed to telling, was always the most powerful Christian witness to me.”
“I didn’t ever feel like Charlie was preaching to me. I felt like Charlie did things that made me curious about his relationship with God and that led to conversation between the two of us. It was ultimately very impactful in my own return to my faith,” he said.
“To be honest about Charlie’s legacy, I have to talk about my own faith and talk about his faith too. It sort of ripped this bandaid off for me,” Vance added.
“As pissed off as I still am, as heartbroken as I still am, there is very much a purpose to this. We don’t fully understand it, but we got to have a little humility and try to understand that purpose and live by that purpose as best we can.”
