Vice president JD Vance just took the stage, hailing Charlie Kirk as someone who “transformed the face of conservatism in our own time.”Making multiple references to conservative talking points including anti-abortion sentiments and religiously-guided family values, Vance said:
“Charlie Kirk brought many truths in his life… He brought the truth that marriage and family were the highest callings, far more important than any job or educational credential. He brought the truth that our nation would fade unless it brought order to its neighborhoods and prosperity to its people. He brought the truth that life was precious and we must fight to protect it at all stages and at all times.”
In his concluding remarks, JD Vance said:
“For Charlie, we will speak the truth every single day. For Charlie, we will rebuild this United States of America to greatness. For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never cower, and we will never falter, even when staring down the barrel of a gun. For Charlie, we will remember that it is better to stand on our feet, defending the United States of America and defending the truth than it is to die on our knees.”
He went on to say:
“My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America, and he is a martyr for the Christian faith. May our heavenly father give us the courage to live as Charlie lived. That is what we must do. For Charlie, you ran a good race, my friend. I love you. We’ve got it from here. Thank you.”
JD Vance went on to add:
“He was taken from us by those who despise the virtues that actually made our civilization great to begin with, dialogue, truth-seeking, family and faith. In the wake of his death, we have seen some of the very worst parts of humanity. We have watched people slander him. We have watched people justify his murder and celebrate his death. I know that this makes you angry, just as it has made me angry, but it is easy in these moments to see only the worst of our fellow man.
I found myself wishing that I could pick up the phone and talk to my friend and ask him for his advice and his counsel, to ask him how to respond to such hate and the souls from which that hate springs…
I think he would encourage me to be honest, that evil still walks among us, not to ignore it for the sake of a fake kumbaya moment, but to address it head on and honestly as the sickness that it is.”
Vice president JD Vance just took the stage, hailing Charlie Kirk as someone who “transformed the face of conservatism in our own time.”Making multiple references to conservative talking points including anti-abortion sentiments and religiously-guided family values, Vance said:
“Charlie Kirk brought many truths in his life… He brought the truth that marriage and family were the highest callings, far more important than any job or educational credential. He brought the truth that our nation would fade unless it brought order to its neighborhoods and prosperity to its people. He brought the truth that life was precious and we must fight to protect it at all stages and at all times.”
Donald Trump Jr just delivered an explicitly political tribute to Charlie Kirk, kicking off with an impersonation of his father before referencing Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.Trump Jr said:
“To say Charlie knew more about the Bible than me is an understatement, folks. It’s like saying Donald Trump knows more about being president than Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris. No kidding…
Charlie embodied something at the very core of our movement. When people disagree with us, we don’t silence them, we don’t destroy them, and we certainly don’t sink to violence. We don’t burn down their businesses. We don’t scream at their children at Disneyland. No, we debate. We stand tall and we win with our ideas.”
Trump Jr’s comments come as dozens of workers across the country, ranging from journalists to popular late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel, have been penalized as employers and public officials crack down on remarks that they regard as “inappropriate” towards Kirk.Earlier this week, US attorney general Pam Bondi faced backlash across the political spectrum, including from rightwing communities, after she vowed to target “hate speech” following Kirk’s killing.Bondi later walked back on her remarks, saying: “My intention was to speak about threats of violence that individuals incite against others.”Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr just delivered a tribute to Charlie Kirk, saying:
“He understood democracy’s great advantage was that our policies were formed by ideas that triumphed in a marketplace of debate and conversation.
He thought that conversation was the only way to heal our country, and this was important, particularly important during a technological age when we are all hooked into social rhythms, social algorithms that are hacked into reptilian cords of our brain and amplify our impulses for tribalism and for division.”
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth just addressed the crowd in a highly religiously charged address filled with references to war and religious crusade.Hegseth called Charlie Kirk “a true believer for the cause of freedom, for the power of young people, belief in our republic and our founding principles in America first and make America great again.”He also pointed to what Kirk saw as a “spiritual war,” saying:
“You see, we always did need less government. But what, Charlie understood and infused into his movement, is we also needed a lot more God… On this Sunday morning, I’d like to think we’re all in Charlie’s church.
He went on to add:
“Charlie waged war, not with a weapon, but with a tent, a microphone, his mind and the truth and the gates of hell could not prevail against him… Charlie Kirk was a citizen who had the biblical heart of a soldier of the faith, who put on every single day the full armor of God with a smile as the Scriptures tell all Christ followers to do. Charlie Kirk a warrior for country, a warrior for Christ. He ran the race. He finished the fight.”
Secretary of state Marco Rubio was the next speaker, following suit from previous speakers and comparing Charlie Kirk to historical figures including Jesus.Addressing the crowd, Rubio said:
“Here was this voice that inspired a movement in which young Americans were told that is not true. The highest calling we are called to is to be in a successful marriage and to raise productive children. The…movement that taught them that ours was not a great country, but the greatest, most exceptional nation that has ever existed in the history of all of mankind, and that it’s worth fighting for…
God took on the form of a man and came down and lived among us, and he suffered like men, and he died like a man, but on the third day, he rose unlike any mortal man, and then, and to prove any doubters wrong, he ate with his disciples so they could see and they touched his wounds… And when he returns, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and we will all be together, and we are going to have a great reunion there again with Charlie and all the people we love.”
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has just addressed the crowd in what was a markedly political speech.
Gabbard, who was an opponent of same-sex marriage at the start of her career, said: “Charlie, he chose our schools as his arena because he knows that they are meant to teach, to train our young people to think critically, to debate ideas, to test their strength through a clash of reason. But too often, these schools silence debate, saying words are violence and dissenting voices are hush and those who speak of God, those who speak the truth, simple, objective truths like there are only two genders in these schools, they are told you have no voice.”
Gabbard, who spoke of schools but made no mention of the slew of mass school shootings that occur each year in the US, went on to add:
“History shows this dark pattern that when ideas cannot withstand scrutiny, whether it’s the ideology of so called religious fanatics or political fanatics, they’re …terrified that their weak ideas will be exposed for what they are… They kill and terrorize their opponents, hoping to silence them. But in this evil that we have experienced that Charlie face, their flawed ideology is exposed. Because by trying to silence Charlie, his voice is now louder than ever.”
Tucker Carlson, political commentator and former Fox host, has just spoken at State Farm stadium.In a religiously charged and charismatic speech, Carlson said:
“Charlie was a political person who was deeply interested in coalition-building and in getting the right people in office, because he knew that vast improvements are possible politically, but he also knew that politics is not the final answer. It can’t answer the deepest questions, actually, that the only real solution is Jesus.
Politics at its core is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the gospel message, the message of Jesus begins with repentance …
This gathering and God’s presence, God’s very obvious presence in this room, the presence of Jesus, is a reminder of what we’ve known for 2,000 years, which is any attempt to extinguish the light causes it to burn brighter.”
Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, just addressed the crowd.In an incendiary speech, Miller said:
“You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk. You have made him immortal. You have immortalized Charlie Kirk, and now millions will carry on his legacy.”
Miller, speaking as if Kirk’s killing had been incited by “our enemies”, went on to add:
“We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot imagine what they have awakened … We we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.
And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build.”
Prosecutors have said that they suspect 22-year old Tyler Robinson killed Kirk because he personally had become sick of what he perceived to be Kirk’s “hatred”.But, citing three sources familiar with the investigation into Kirk’s killing, NBC reported on Saturday that federal authorities have not found any link between Robinson and leftwing groups, on which the Trump administration has threatened to crack down after the deadly shooting.Millers comments came days after he threatened a crackdown on what he called a “vast domestic terror movement” without providing evidence. Miller said the administration would use the federal government to achieve this goal.“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, [Department of] Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks,” Miller said, adding that they would do this “in Charlie’s name”.at the State Farm stadium in Glendale, ArizonaAn ear-splitting roar just broke out as the camera showed Donald Trump for the first time. The president flew from the White House to Glendale on Sunday morning for the service.From a box on an upper level of the arena, Trump, wearing a red tie, pumped his fist.“We’re going to celebrate the life of a great man today,” Trump told reporters before departing Washington earlier today. He said he was braced for a “tough day.”Charlie Kirk’s memorial service kicked off with religious tributes made by his colleagues and friends who recounted their memories of the slain 31-year old who founded the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA.The tributes then slowly made way for more political messaging with very few calls of unity.Addressing the crowd was Ben Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate and Trump’s transporation secretary during his first term.In a politically charged address, Carson made references to 1950s communism and alleged progressive attempts to gain control of media outlets and Hollywood.Meanwhile, Florida’s Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna, compared Kirk to Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights icon who Kirk once called “awful” and Kirk claimed “said one good thing he actually didn’t believe”.Addressing the crowd, Luna said that Kirk “altered the trajectory of our modern fight against cultural decay and ideological tyranny”.Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma introduced legislation this week that would require every public university in the state to construct “a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza”, with a statue of the assassinated Republican activist and a sign calling him a “modern civil rights leader”, or pay monthly fines.Each plaza must also include “permanent signage commemorating Charlie Kirk’s courage and faith and explaining the significance of Charlie Kirk as a voice of a generation, modern civil rights leader, vocal Christian, martyr for truth and faith, and free speech advocate”.The state-dictated reference to Kirk as a civil rights leader echoes the widespread effort on the right to cast the founder of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA as a figure equivalent to Martin Luther King Jr, a man Kirk once called “awful”.After everyone from a Georgia representative to a deputy chief of the New York police department made the comparison with MLK, the slain civil rights leader’s son, Martin Luther King III, took time this week to reject it, noting that Kirk had accused prominent Black women of lacking “the brain processing power to be taken seriously”, while his father “was about bringing people together”.“When you’re doing that, it’s a disservice to unification,” King told a reporter in Virginia. Kirk, he said, “certainly was a force in this society and a significant force, but I just disagree with the position that his force was about inclusiveness. When you denigrate Black women and say that somebody is in a position just because of the color of their skin, that’s gravely false.” More
