Vice President JD Vance hosts an episode of the Charlie Kirk Present within the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing on Monday. Kirk was killed final week whereas talking at Utah Valley College.
Doug Mills/AFP through Getty Photographs
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Doug Mills/AFP through Getty Photographs
Vice President JD Vance took the mic on Monday to host The Charlie Kirk Present, simply 5 days after the 31-year-old right-wing activist was shot and killed in Utah.
The 2-hour livestream, with Vance on the helm, marked a hanging reminder of how the White Home seen Kirk, each as a frontrunner within the younger conservative house and as a behind-the-scenes political participant who they mentioned helped form President Trump’s second time period in workplace.
“The final a number of days have been extraordinarily arduous for our nation,” Vance mentioned initially of the published. “The factor is, each single individual on this constructing, we owe one thing to Charlie.”
It featured appearances from a number of key Trump administration officers, together with White Home Chief of Workers Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. They have been joined by Kirk’s former colleagues and buddies, who mirrored on the activist’s legacy and mentioned how leaders can maintain the motion he constructed over the previous 13 years.
Kirk and Vance have been shut buddies, one thing the vp spoke about at size throughout Monday’s taping. Above, Kirk moderates a dialog with Vance throughout a Turning Level Motion’s Chase the Vote marketing campaign occasion at Era Church in Mesa, Ariz., on Sept. 4, 2024.
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Rebecca Noble/AFP through Getty Photographs
However ever-present all through the episode was additionally a way of loss and deep anger surrounding Kirk’s demise, with Vance and others repeatedly arguing that previous criticism of Kirk from the left stoked the violence taken in opposition to him, regardless of authorities having but to announce a identified motive in his killing.
In his closing feedback, Vance lambasted what he described because the “far-left” motion, referencing the assassination makes an attempt in opposition to Trump’s life final yr and the taking pictures of Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise, R-La., in 2017. However he omitted newer acts of violence concentrating on Democrats, such because the June assault in Minnesota that killed a Democratic state lawmaker and her partner, and left one other Democratic lawmaker wounded.
Air Drive Two carrying Vice President JD Vance, with the casket of Charlie Kirk on board, flies previous the Utah State Capitol whereas departing from Salt Lake Metropolis Worldwide Airport final Thursday.
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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP through Getty Photographs
“This isn’t a both-sides drawback. If each side have an issue, one facet has a a lot greater and malignant drawback, and that’s the fact we should be instructed,” he mentioned.
“I can not promise you that each one of us will keep away from Charlie’s destiny,” he added. “Cannot promise you that I’ll keep away from Charlie’s destiny, however the best way to honor him is to shine the sunshine of fact like a torch within the very darkest locations. Go do it.”
