Washington — Vice President JD Vance is internet hosting “The Charlie Kirk Present” Monday after Kirk was shot and killed final week at Utah Valley College.
Vance introduced Sunday in a publish on X that he had the “honor of internet hosting the Charlie Kirk Present” to “pay tribute to my buddy.” Talking from his workplace within the White Home advanced Monday, Vance stated he was “filling in for anyone who can’t be stuffed in for” as he kicked off the present.
“However I’ll attempt to do my finest,” Vance stated.
Kirk, a conservative activist, was assassinated final week throughout a college occasion hosted by his group, Turning Level USA, in Orem, Utah. The 31-year-old was near Vance, together with President Trump and his household.
After his demise, Kirk’s physique was flown on the vice chairman’s aircraft, Air Power Two, to Kirk’s residence state of Arizona. Vance canceled a deliberate journey to New York to mark 24 years because the Sept. 11, 2001, assault to fly to Utah to retrieve Kirk’s physique. Vance stated Monday that he was honored to have the ability to “take Charlie’s stays from Utah to Arizona.”
Vance has described his longtime friendship with Kirk, who was additionally a key ally in his political rise. Vance stated in a publish on X after Kirk’s demise that the slain conservative activist was one of many first folks he referred to as when he thought of working for Senate in 2021, and he stated Kirk advocated for him to develop into the vice presidential nominee “each in private and non-private.”
The vice chairman described Kirk as a “true buddy.” On Monday, Vance referred to as Kirk “the neatest political operative I ever met,” saying “I owe a lot to Charlie.”
REBECCA NOBLE/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Kirk’s youth turnout operation has additionally been credited with serving to Mr. Trump’s 2024 election bid, whereas Kirk himself was identified to have influenced a few of the Trump administration’s personnel choices. Vance stated a lot of “the success we have had on this administration traces on to Charlie’s means to arrange and convene,” including that Kirk “did not simply assist us win in 2024, he helped us employees your entire authorities.”
Andrew Kolvet, the chief producer of “The Charlie Kirk Present,” stated on CNN Monday that Vance’s internet hosting of the present “took place as a result of he requested if he might do it.”
“Charlie and JD have been mates. They have been precise mates,” Kolvet stated, including that “plenty of the folks which are working the federal authorities are private mates of Charlie’s and so they have been within the trenches collectively, the marketing campaign, and so they’ve identified one another for years.”
The president introduced final week that he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. A memorial service for Kirk is ready to be held on Sept. 21 in Arizona.
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, stated in her first public remarks since his demise that “the motion my husband constructed won’t die,” noting that “the radio and podcast present that he was so happy with will go on.”
“In the event you thought that my husband’s mission was highly effective earlier than, you haven’t any thought,” she stated.
