RIP, Charlie Kirk

On this 9/11 we remember the death of a man who was but 7 years old when the towers fell. He grew to become a tower of a man, handsome, strong and well-read. Yesterday he fell. Grown men wept.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk shows that the devil is very much alive in our government. The hitman went for the throat. They learned from Butler.

Pray for his widow and their young children. Pray for Congress too because while the New York Yankees held a moment of silence for him, Congress could not pull such a moment off.

And remember:

“When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues. When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group.

“What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement—where violence is not an option.” —Charlie Kirk.

He was a good man by all accounts, devoted to God, his family and his country. The pictures made public of his wife and children show him and his wife shielding the faces of their children because he knew what the stakes were. He valiantly went forward for that very reason of knowing what was at stake.

The media blew Charlie off as a right-wing activist. He wasn’t. He was a patriot. His values were those of our Founding Fathers. I do not know who his parents were but I do know he was raised right. They gave him a sense of purpose and he made the most of his 31 years here.

The tributes were many reflecting his short but mighty life’s work.

Ben Shapiro tweeted:

Like all of you, I am utterly stunned and heartbroken and sick to my soul today. It is unimaginable to write these words. I met Charlie Kirk when he was 18 years old, a young man so eager and determined that I immediately turned to a friend and said, “That kid is going to be the head of the RNC one day.”

Charlie became even bigger and more important than that. It was a privilege to watch this principled man stand up for his beliefs and create the single most important conservative political organization in America. But more importantly, Charlie was a good man, a man who believed in right and wrong, who stood by his Biblical values.

All of us will miss him, and I can’t imagine the pain of his beautiful young family, and we must all pray for them. And we must pick up the baton where Charlie left it, fighting for the things he believed in so passionately. And we must fight for a better America—an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. I weep for Charlie’s family, and I weep for my country today. Most of all, I weep for Charlie.

Bishop Robert Barron tweeted:

I first met Charlie Kirk about four years ago when I was in Phoenix for a speaking engagement. He reached out and invited me to breakfast. I was deeply impressed by him that day. He was a man of great intelligence, considerable charm, and real goodness of heart.

I reconnected with him just last year, after I saw him debate twenty-five young people who were, to put it mildly, hostile to his views. I texted him that I was so struck by how he kept his cool and his charitable attitude in the face of some pretty obnoxious opposition. I then asked him to appear as a guest on my interview program, “Bishop Barron Presents,” and he eagerly accepted my invitation. He was scheduled to come to Rochester, Minnesota in about ten days. The last contact we had was two nights ago. After I appeared on one of the evening news shows to talk about the Religious Liberty Commission, he texted me and told me how much he appreciated what I said and then added, “I’m excited to join you on your show soon. God bless you.”

That last sentence shows what was most important to Charlie. He was indeed a great debater and also one of the best advocates in our country for civil discourse, but he was, first and last, a passionate Christian. In fact, when we had that breakfast in Phoenix, we didn’t talk much about politics. We talked about theology, in which he had a deep interest, and about Christ. I know I’m joining millions of people around the world in praying that he rests now in the peace of the Lord.

Benny Johnson tweeted:

Charlie Kirk died as he lived: Fighting for light in the darkest corners of America.

Charlie Kirk is a martyr for his country. A Christian solder. He lived with hope. God has now called him home.

This is America’s Turning Point.

To honor him, we must carry on his mission: to confront the evil consuming our culture and fight it back with truth.

There will never be another like him. His vision now becomes our charge.

Charlie Kirk. American Martyr. Christian Soldier. Forever honored. This is America’s Turning Point.

We shall see how his legacy will unfold. Almost half of America has already forgotten 9/11, giving Afghanistan back to the Taliban because Biden was bored with it all.

But I am sure that Charlie’s assignment was from an authority far higher than man. He was a fighter who used words. They picked him off and that was a very big mistake for you see we have a fighter now in the Oval Office who uses words and B2’s.

And we will have another fighter when he departs in 2029.

JD Vance tweeted:

A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.

Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind. Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives. When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right—as he usually was—he was generous. With Charlie, the attitude was never, "I told you so." But: "welcome."

Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for senate in early 2021. I was interested but skeptical there was a pathway. We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr. "Like his dad, he's misunderstood. He's extremely smart, and very much on our wavelength." Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too.

Long before I ever committed (even in my mind) to running, Charlie had me speak to his donors at a TPUSA event. He walked me around the room and introduced me. He gave me honest feedback on my remarks. He had no reason to do this, no expectation that I'd go anywhere. I was polling, at that point, well below 5 percent. He did it because we were friends, and because he was a good man.

When I became the VP nominee—something Charlie advocated for both in public and private—Charlie was there for me. I was so glad to be part of the president's team, but candidly surprised by the effect it had on our family. Our kids, especially our oldest, struggled with the attention and the constant presence of the protective detail. I felt this acute sense of guilt, that I had conscripted my kids into this life without getting their permission. And Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers. Some of our most successful events were organized not by the campaign, but by TPUSA. He wasn't just a thinker, he was a doer, turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists. And after every event, he would give me a big hug, tell me he was praying for me, and ask me what he could do. "You focus on Wisconsin," he'd tell me. "Arizona is in the bag." And it was.

Charlie genuinely believed in and loved Jesus Christ. He had a profound faith. We used to argue about Catholicism and Protestantism and who was right about minor doctrinal questions. Because he loved God, he wanted to understand him.

Someone else pointed out that Charlie died doing what he loved: discussing ideas. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions. If it was a friendly crowd, and a progressive asked a question to jeers from the audience, he'd encourage his fans to calm down and let everyone speak. He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas.

Charlie had an uncanny ability to know when to push the envelope and when to be more conventional. I've seen people attack him for years for being wrong on this or that issue publicly, never realizing that privately he was working to broaden the scope of acceptable debate.

He was a great family man. I was talking to President Trump in the Oval Office today, and he said, "I know he was a very good friend of yours." I nodded silently, and President Trump observed that Charlie really loved his family. The president was right. Charlie was so proud of Erika and the two kids. He was so happy to be a father. And he felt such gratitude for having found a woman of God with whom he could build a family.

Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him. I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other’s chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life. These group chats include people at the very highest level of our government. They trusted him, loved him, and knew he'd always have their backs. And because he was a true friend ,you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to. So much of the success we've had in this administration traces directly to Charlie's ability to organize and convene. He didn't just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.

I was in a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats started lighting up with people telling Charlie they were praying for him. And that’s how I learned the news that my friend had been shot. I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in.

God didn’t answer those prayers, and that’s OK. He had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I’ll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends, and the country he loved so dearly.

You ran a good race, my friend.

We’ve got it from here.

Words matter because as Charlie pointed out, they serve as a buffer to an all-out war.

Some are saying he should receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. I oppose that because while he earned it and the medal would show his children how great he was, the medal also would signal that the fight is over. No, the battle continues. We have the War Department and a newfound appreciation for unconditional surrender.

RIP, Charlie Kirk. We hope to win with words but we are prepared to back our words with action.