UPDATE: Turning Point USA spokesman and executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, Andrew Kolvet, said on Saturday evening that TPUSA does not believe the person in question &#8220;was attempting anything nefarious.&#8221;
&#8220;This individual was doing advance security for a known guest planning to attend the memorial service tomorrow,&#8221; Kolvet said. &#8220;We do not believe this person was attempting anything nefarious, however the advance was not done in proper coordination with the TPUSA security team or US Secret Service. Also important to note that this was before the site had been fully sealed and locked down.&#8221;
&#8220;Every precaution is being taken to ensure everyone’s safety,&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I want to add a note of clarity here. This individual was doing advance security for a known guest planning to attend the memorial service tomorrow. We do not believe this person was attempting anything nefarious, however the advance was not done in proper coordination with the… <a href="https://t.co/i6YvnMUog1">https://t.co/i6YvnMUog1</a>
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/1969511659900453006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
***
Original story: An armed man displaying &#8220;suspicious behavior&#8221; was arrested Friday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, according to federal authorities.
On Sunday, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-and-top-conservatives-to-gather-sunday-in-arizona-to-remember-charlie-kirk?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+And+Top+Conservatives+To+Gather+Sunday+In+Arizona+To+Remember+Charlie+Kirk">special memorial event</a> for assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk will be held at the stadium. The event will include speeches from Kirk&#8217;s widow Erika Kirk, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and others.
The suspicious man was allegedly falsely <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/armed-man-detained-charlie-kirk-memorial-service-stadium-report-2132909">posing</a> as law enforcement.
&#8220;The U.S. Secret Service in coordination with local law enforcement in Glendale, Arizona, is investigating an individual who was observed exhibiting suspicious behavior at State Farm Stadium,&#8221; Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/charlie-kirk-shooting-investigation-9-20-2025">confirmed</a> to Fox News.
&#8220;The individual was approached by Secret Service and stated during the encounter that he was a member of law enforcement and that he was armed. The individual is not a member of authorized law enforcement working the event and is currently in custody,&#8221; Guglielmi added.
A source told Fox that the man, who has yet to be publicly identified, &#8220;is a former deputy sheriff out of Idaho&#8221; and &#8220;identified himself with expired credentials.&#8221;
&#8220;They are going through his background and trying to figure out what he was up to there,&#8221; the source added.
The event has been designated by the Department of Homeland Security as a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) Level 1 event, which gives it Super Bowl-level security.
“This designation is reserved for events of the highest national significance and enables the federal government to provide the full range of law enforcement and security resources necessary to support local officials in ensuring a safe and successful event,” a DHS official <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5511577-super-bowl-security-charlie-kirk-memorial-arizona/">said</a>, according to The Hill.
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The service for Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA at just 18 years old, is expected to turn out at least tens of thousands of Americans, with anticipated overflow since the stadium holds little more than 63,000 people.
The Daily Wire will stream the Turning Point USA event across all platforms at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday.
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-and-top-conservatives-to-gather-sunday-in-arizona-to-remember-charlie-kirk?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+And+Top+Conservatives+To+Gather+Sunday+In+Arizona+To+Remember+Charlie+Kirk">Trump And Top Conservatives To Gather Sunday In Arizona To Remember Charlie Kirk</a>

Carolina Panthers v Arizona Cardinals

UPDATED: ‘Suspicious’ Armed Man Arrested Outside Stadium Where Charlie Kirk Memorial To Be Held

Armed Man Arrested Outside Charlie Kirk Memorial Stadium

Arizona

Charlie Kirk

Donald Trump

General

JD Vance

U.S.

The conservative world will gather in Arizona on Sunday, September 21, to remember American legend Charlie Kirk.
The service for the Turning Point USA founder will be held at the NFL home of the Arizona Cardinals, which holds more than 60,000 people and has been the site of multiple Super Bowls. It will feature speeches by the top administration figures including President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
It will also feature a speech by Erika Kirk, who was unanimously elected to take over her husband&#8217;s role as CEO and Board Chair of Turning Point USA.
The Daily Wire will stream the Turning Point USA event across all platforms at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Erika Kirk has pledged that the assassination of her husband will only make Turning Point USA stronger.
“The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination, they have no idea what they have done,” a fiery Erika said. “They should all know this, if you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea, you have no idea what you just unleashed across this country.”
“You have no idea the fire you have ignited in his wife,” she said. “The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.”
“The movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen,” Erika pledged. “No one will ever forget my husband’s name, and I will make sure of it.”
The conservative world is expected to turn out in force to honor Kirk, who has been credited as one of the key architects of Trump&#8217;s political movement.
&#8220;Charlie inspired millions, and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loves so much, the United States of America,” Trump said in an Oval Office address. “He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth.”
Trump has also said that Kirk will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

ck-legacy-16x9_720

Trump And Top Conservatives To Gather Sunday In Arizona To Remember Charlie Kirk

WASHINGTON—An AI company that this week drew the ire of President Donald Trump’s administration by restricting how it’s able to use its tools is partially owned by the leftist Ford Foundation — the same organization slammed by Vice President JD Vance this week for sowing political division.
Senior administration officials who <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/09/17/2025/anthropic-irks-white-house-with-limits-on-models-uswhite-house-with-limits-on-models-use">spoke with Semafor</a> slammed tech giant Anthropic for its refusal to allow its AI model to be used for certain law enforcement tasks, saying the restriction has “deepened hostility” from the administration to the AI company. Anthropic had declined requests from contractors who are working with federal law enforcement agencies, and Trump officials believe it goes beyond terms of service concerns, officials told Semafor.
The officials accused Anthropic of selectively enforcing vague policies due to political considerations, Semafor reported, making moral judgments about how law enforcement agencies conduct their business.
Those concerns may be bolstered by an ownership stake in the company by left-wing networks, including the Ford Foundation, which the White House just rebuked.
The Ford Foundation purchased shares of Anthropic in 2024 in collaboration with Omidyar Network, a network headed by Pierre and Pam Omidyar, longtime Democratic donors who, in 2020, poured $45 million into the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a well-known dark money organization that funnels millions to pet Democrat projects and causes.
In the <a href="https://omidyar.com/update/omidyar-network-purchases-shares-of-anthropic/">announcement of the purchase</a>, Omidyar’s network said the purchase was being made for “social good.”
“We are investing in generative AI that protects and promotes the public interest and prioritizes the long-term benefit of humanity. That’s why we recently acquired shares in Anthropic, a leading generative AI company.”
On Monday, Vice President Vance promised to “go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence” — groups that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller explained are nonprofits and organizations funding violent protests and riots. He then specifically mentioned the Ford Foundation.
“Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups that funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie’s death, did you know they benefit from generous tax treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer, and how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.”
Vance was referring <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/">to an article from The Nation</a> that misquoted Charlie Kirk, incorrectly suggesting that Kirk had made a racist comment. The Nation’s Elizabeth Spears headlined that piece: “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning,” and her sub-headline read: “The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn’t a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division.”
Following Vance’s remarks, The Nation claimed it had never been supported by Soros or Open Society and is not currently funded by the Ford Foundation. A Vance spokesman pointed the media to grant records showing that the Ford Foundation had given The Nation $100,000 in 2019 for its internship program, and the Open Society Foundation had donated to a nonprofit that was previously associated with the publication, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/15/vance-white-house-promise-to-crack-down-on-radical-left-lunatics-00564766">POLITICO reported</a>.
A spokesman for Anthropic said the Ford Foundation doesn’t have any influence on decisions.
“The Ford Foundation represents a tiny fraction of our investor base,” the company spokesman said. “And they do not dictate our positions or activities.”
Anthropic, however, is filled with anti-Trump voices. One of its <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/reed-hastings">newest board members</a>, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, is one of the most <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/us/politics/reed-hastings-netflix-biden-withdraw.html">prominent</a> Democratic donors in the country, donating millions of dollars to both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Daniela Amodei, Anthropic’s co-founder and president, has also donated the maximum amount to Harris and once said, “Trump represents a serious and legitimate threat to the rule of law.” Amodei also said “odds of things going well will be substantially improved” if Trump were not elected in 2024.
And records <a href="https://x.com/gekaminsky/status/1859340662736663029">investigated</a> by journalist Gabe Kaminsky in November 2024 showed that Omidyar (who founded eBay in 1995) was behind the Governors Safeguarding Democracy initiative — the second Trump resistance to  “protect the rule of law” around the country. Omidyar <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-will-ai-startups-navigate-a-trump-presidency">has also said</a> that “Trump represents a serious and legitimate threat to the rule of law.”
Anthropic has, however, managed to do business with this administration.
The Defense Department had awarded Anthropic a “two-year prototype other transaction agreement with a $200 million ceiling” earlier this year, and as part of that agreement, Anthropic is supposed to “prototype frontier AI capabilities that advance U.S. national security,” Anthropic <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-and-the-department-of-defense-to-advance-responsible-ai-in-defense-operations">announced in July</a>.
And in August, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced a “groundbreaking” agreement with Anthropic to bring “Claude for Enterprise” and “Claude for Government” (advanced AI large language models) to all three branches of the U.S. government for only $1 in support of the White House’s AI plan. Its leadership has also appeared at numerous administration events, including <a href="http://anthropic.com/news/investing-in-energy-to-secure-america-s-ai-future" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one alongside Amodei and Trump</a> for an energy event.

Vice President JD Vance Hosts The Charlie Kirk Show In Tribute To Kirk

Liberal Foundation Called Out By JD Vance Has Stake In AI Company Sparring With White House

Liberal Foundation Pinpointed By JD Vance Has Ownership In AI Company Sparring With White House

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Biden Justice Department had targeted and attempted to shut down Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a well-known conservative political activist, was killed by a gunman at a Turning Point USA event in Utah last week. Kirk launched Turning Point USA in 2012.
“Why was the wonderful Turning Point under INVESTIGATION by ‘Deranged’ Jack Smith and the Corrupt &amp; Incompetent Biden Administration,” the president asked in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115217256645822887">post</a> on Truth Social on Tuesday night.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland, who served under former President Joe Biden, appointed Smith in November 2022 to serve as special counsel. Smith took over two Justice Department investigations involving Trump. One focused on Trump’s handling of classified documents, and the other concerned Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“They tried to force Charlie, and many other people and movements, out of business. They Weaponized the Justice Department against Sleepy Joe Biden’s Political Opponents, including ME!” Trump added.
Vice President JD Vance echoed the president’s comments during an interview that aired on Fox News on Wednesday evening. Vance said that if the Biden administration had focused more on investigating radical left-wing groups instead of Kirk and his conservative youth organization, Kirk&#8217;s early death may have been prevented.
“We&#8217;re talking about having law enforcement go after the people who engage in and fund literal violence, and they&#8217;re saying somehow that&#8217;s beyond the pale, even though we know Joe Biden&#8217;s FBI was investigating Charlie Kirk,” Vance <a href="https://x.com/RedWave_Press/status/1968479698154831912">told</a> host Jesse Watters. “Maybe they should have been investigating the networks that motivated, inspired, and maybe even funded Charlie Kirk&#8217;s murder. If they had, Charlie Kirk might be alive today.”
White House officials, including the president, have pointed blame at radical left-wing groups for extreme rhetoric that has tacitly or directly encouraged violence against conservatives. On Wednesday evening, the president announced that he is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-designates-antifa-a-major-terrorist-organization">designating</a> one such group, &#8220;ANTIFA,&#8221; as a terrorist organization.

Joe Biden, Merrick Garland

Trump Says Biden DOJ Targeted Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA

Department of Justice

Joe Biden

Turning Point USA

WASHINGTON—White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller grew emotional Monday as he spoke with Vice President JD Vance about their late friend, Charlie Kirk. Miller vowed to channel the anger and sadness he felt at Kirk’s assassination into dismantling the domestic terror movement in the United States, telling Vance: “It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
Miller joined Vance as the vice president hosted The Charlie Kirk Show in honor of the show’s namesake, who was killed by a shooter last week while speaking with college students in Utah. Miller shared that in the last message Kirk sent him, the day before he was killed, the TPUSA founder urged Miller to implement an “organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country.”
Miller did not specify what Kirk was specifically addressing. But his comment came about two weeks after a trans-identifying shooter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-there-can-be-no-unity-with-those-celebrating-charlie-kirks-assassination">killed</a> two children and injured many others when he opened fire on a Catholic school mass in late August. That shooting came two years after another trans-identifying killer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nashville-mourns-covenant-school-shooting-victims-at-citywide-vigil">targeted</a> Christian school children in Nashville.
On September 4, a week before Kirk’s murder, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-doj-considering-gun-ban-for-transgenders?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+DOJ+Deliberates+Over+Gun+Ban+For+Transgenders">reported</a> that Justice Department officials were considering blocking trans-identifying people from buying firearms in conversations on the “range of options” following the Annunciation school shooting.
Kirk’s words left a deep impression, Miller told Vance, saying: “I will write those words onto my heart and I will carry them out.”
The White House deputy chief of staff was emotional as he shared the “incredible sadness” and “incredible anger” he has felt over the death of his friend. Unfocused anger or blind rage is not productive, reflected Miller, but “righteous anger is one of the most important agents of change in human history.”
“We are going to channel all the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks,” said Miller.
He explained: “The organized doxxing campaigns. The organized riots. The organized street violence. The organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification. Posting people&#8217;s addresses, combining that with messaging that&#8217;s designed to trigger and incite violence. And the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence.”
Miller argued that there is a “vast domestic terror movement” alive in the United States.
“And with God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and throughout this government, to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks, and make America safe again for the American people.”
Miller has emerged at the forefront of the conversations surrounding the radical ideology that inspired Kirk’s killer. The day after Kirk was murdered, Miller <a href="https://x.com/StephenM/status/1966140301044564370">posted</a> on “X” and spoke out against the ideology behind Kirk’s death.
“There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved,” he wrote. “It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless. It is an ideology that looks upon the perfect family with bitter rage while embracing the serial criminal with tender warmth.”
“Its adherents organize constantly to tear down and destroy every mark of grace and beauty while lifting up everything monstrous and foul,” Miller explained. “It is an ideology that leads, always, inevitably and willfully, to violence — violence against those who uphold order, who uphold faith, who uphold family, who uphold all that is noble and virtuous in this world. It is an ideology whose one unifying thread is the insatiable thirst for destruction.”
The White House deputy chief of staff pointed to the posts online cheering for the assassination of Kirk, writing: “We see the workings of this ideology in every posting online cheering the evil assassination that cruelly robbed this nation of one of its greatest men.”
“Postings from those in positions of institutional authority — educators, healthcare workers, therapists, government employees — reveling in the vile and the sinister with the most chilling glee,” he reflected. “The fate of millions depends upon the defeat of this wicked ideology. The fate of our children, our society, our civilization hinges on it. Now we devote ourselves, with love and unyielding determination, to finishing the indispensable work to which Charlie bravely devoted his life and gave his last measure of devotion.”

President Trump Hosts Phillipines President Marcos At The White House

Stephen Miller Vows To Destroy ‘Vast Domestic Terror Movement’ Behind Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

Stephen Miller

Vice President JD Vance said that there can be “no unity” with those on the Left celebrating or making excuses for the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Vance made the comments as he guest-hosted the Charlie Kirk Show on Monday from the White House. Vance said that the country can only come together once the problem with political violence coming from the Left is acknowledged and dealt with.
“I really do believe that we can come together in this country. I believe we must, but unity, real unity, can be found only after climbing the mountain of truth. And there are difficult truths we must confront in our country,” Vance said.
One of the “difficult truths,” Vance said, was that political violence was not a “both sides” issue.
“If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told. That problem has terrible consequences,” he said, pointing to the assassination attempt of President Donald Trump and the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise back in 2017.
“By celebrating that murder, apologizing for it, and emphasizing not Charlie&#8217;s innocence, but the fact that he said things some didn&#8217;t like, even to the point of lying about what he actually said, many of these people are creating an environment where things like this are inevitably going to happen,” Vance said. “There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder.”
https://x.com/JDVance/status/1967659982507372822
Vance encouraged people to continue calling out others on social media if they celebrated or mocked the death of Kirk. People from across the country, from airline pilots to university professors, have been disciplined over posts belittling Kirk’s killing.
“So when you see someone celebrating Charlie&#8217;s murder, call them out, and hell, call their employer,” Vance said. “We don&#8217;t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility. And there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.”
He said that the Trump administration would be working to “dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country” and encouraged Americans to get involved politically.
“I can’t promise you this is gonna be easy,” he said. “I can’t promise you that all of us will avoid Charlie’s fate. I can’t promise you that I will avoid Charlie’s fate. But the best way to honor him is to shine the light of truth like a torch in the very darkest places.”
Vance concluded his remarks by pointing to the passage in the New Testament that talks about putting on the “full armor of God.”
“Let all of us put on that armor and commit ourselves to that cause for which Charlie gave his life, to rebuild the United States of America and to do it by telling the truth,” Vance said.

Vance: There Can Be ‘No Unity’ With Those Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

assassination

Politics

Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that the best way he can honor the legacy of his friend, Charlie Kirk, is to become a better husband and father.
Vance hosted Kirk&#8217;s popular podcast and radio show on Monday and <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1967625231352414461">shared</a> some details of his conversation with Kirk&#8217;s wife, Erika, the day after the beloved conservative commentator was assassinated last week. The vice president said that he was struck by how Erika described her husband&#8217;s patience and love.
&#8220;When I first met Erika &#8230; she gave me a hug and she was heartbroken, as of course she would be, and she said that she loved him so much,&#8221; Vance said, adding, &#8220;I said, &#8216;Erika, he loved you so much. He died way too young, but he died a happy man because of you, because of the family that you gave him, because of the home and the life that you guys had built together.&#8221;
Kirk, the 31-year-old conservative icon who was killed by an assassin&#8217;s bullet at Utah Valley University last Wednesday, also leaves behind two small children. Vance said that he spent around an hour with Erika, discussing some of their favorite memories of Kirk.
&#8220;And she said something to me that I will never forget,&#8221; Vance added. &#8220;She said to me that Charlie never raised his voice, never cussed at her, was never cross or mean-spirited to her. I&#8217;m a husband. I&#8217;m proud of being a husband. I think that on the great balance of things that I&#8217;m a pretty good husband, but I could never say that I was never unpleasant with my wife. I could never say that I&#8217;ve never raised my voice to my wife.&#8221;
&#8220;I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,&#8221; the vice president said. &#8220;All of these moments that I&#8217;ve shared just in the last few days, the books that I&#8217;ve read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and kissing them and hugging them before bed, I just realize that all of these moments that I get to have, Charlie isn&#8217;t able to have them anymore. And Charlie&#8217;s kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore.&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe the best way that I can honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be, to be the kind of husband to my wife that he was to his,&#8221; Vance continued.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
JD Vance shares that he is honoring Charlie Kirk by being a better husband and father.
&#8220;All of these moments that I get to have, Charlie isn&#8217;t able to have them anymore&#8230;The best way that I can honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be&#8230;&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/K7bIVeExmX">pic.twitter.com/K7bIVeExmX</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1967625882295750725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The vice president and second lady traveled to be with Kirk&#8217;s grieving family in Utah after the assassination before accompanying Kirk&#8217;s casket aboard Air Force Two back to his home state of Arizona.

Charlie Kirk, JD Vance

JD Vance Says Becoming A Better Husband, Father Is Best Way To Honor Charlie Kirk

Fathers

Husband

An emotional and fiery Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, spoke out publicly for the first time since the assassination of her husband on Friday. She reflected on Charlie&#8217;s life and faith, and vowed to never let her husband&#8217;s mission end.
Erika opened her remarks by thanking law enforcement and first responders for helping her husband after the shooting and capturing his assassin.
The young mother said her husband &#8220;loved what he did&#8221; and thanked all of Charlie&#8217;s supporters. She also singled out Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance for honoring Charlie after his assassination.
And to President Donald Trump, Erika said of her husband, &#8220;He loved you. And he knew that you loved him, too.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
JUST IN &#8211; ERIKA KIRK: &#8220;Mr. President. My husband loved you. And he knew that you loved him too. He did.&#8221;
😭😭 <a href="https://t.co/wGYfeLwngb">pic.twitter.com/wGYfeLwngb</a>
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1966660153534542119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
She also discussed Charlie&#8217;s faith, and said she was sure Charlie was with his Savior, Jesus Christ. &#8220;Two days ago, my husband went to see the face of his Savior and his God,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Now, and for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior&#8217;s side wearing the glorious crown of a martyr.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Erika Kirk: &#8220;Two days ago, my husband went to see the face of his Savior and his God&#8230; Now, and for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior&#8217;s side wearing the glorious crown of a martyr.&#8221; ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/BhPDEPcK4I">pic.twitter.com/BhPDEPcK4I</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1966661452942467190?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Charlie loved life, he loved his life, he loved America, he loved nature &#8230; he loved the Chicago Cubs and, my goodness, did he love the Oregon Ducks,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But most of all, Charlie loved his children and he loved me, with all of his heart. And I knew that, he made sure I knew that.&#8221;
&#8220;He was such a good man,&#8221; Erika said through tears. &#8220;He was the perfect father, he was the perfect husband.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_971973" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-971973" class="wp-image-971973 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234173488-2-864x576.jpg" alt="PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234173488-2-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234173488-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234173488-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2234173488-2.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images</div>
&#8220;My husband laid down his life for me, for our nation, for our children &#8212; he showed the ultimate covenantal love,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Our God is so good.&#8221;
&#8220;The evildoers responsible for my husband&#8217;s assassination, they have no idea what they have done,&#8221; a fiery Erika said. &#8220;They should all know this, if you thought that my husband&#8217;s mission was powerful before, you have no idea, you have no idea what you just unleashed across this country.&#8221;
&#8220;You have no idea the fire you have ignited in his wife,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨 BREAKING &#8211; ERIKA KIRK UNLEASHES, DEFIANT: &#8220;They should all know this. If you THOUGHT that my husband&#8217;s mission was powerful before? You have NO IDEA. You have no idea what you&#8217;ve just unleashed across this entire country, and this world. You have no idea the fire you&#8217;ve… <a href="https://t.co/kxpcEa3pLw">pic.twitter.com/kxpcEa3pLw</a>
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1966661765086715932?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;The movement my husband built will not die. It won&#8217;t. I refuse to let that happen,&#8221; Erika promised. &#8220;No one will ever forget my husband&#8217;s name, and I will make sure of it.&#8221;
Erika added that Turning Point USA events, including planned campus events, will continue as planned.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/saying-political-violence-is-wrong-doesnt-go-far-enough?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Ben+Shapiro&amp;category=Opinion&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Saying+‘Political+Violence+Is+Wrong’+Doesn’t+Go+Far+Enough">Saying ‘Political Violence Is Wrong’ Doesn’t Go Far Enough</a>

‘We’ll Never Surrender’: Erika Kirk Gives Emotional, Fiery Address Following Husband’s Assassination

Crime

Murder

Prayers and well-wishes flooded social media after conservative commentator and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Video circulated of the shooting, which took place about 20 minutes after Kirk began speaking. A loud crack could be heard before Kirk jerked back and then slumped to the side in his chair. School officials told local news outlets that the shot had been fired from atop the Losee Center, about 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking.
Kirk appeared to be hit in the neck by a single shot while speaking at one of his signature college campus events, and his condition remains unknown. Many of Kirk&#8217;s friends and fellow conservatives around the country encouraged their followers to lift up Kirk, a devout Christian, in prayer. Kirk is also a husband and a father of two small children.
Shortly after reports of the shooting began spreading on social media, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee posted, &#8220;Shots fired at @charliekirk11 event at Utah Valley University. This is a good time to pray.&#8221;
Utah&#8217;s other Republican Senator, John Curtis, added, &#8220;My heart goes out to Charlie, those in attendance, and their families. We are praying for his safety and the well-being of everyone impacted. My team and I will continue to gather more information as it becomes available and are closely monitoring the situation. I am grateful for the swift response of law enforcement and first responders working to secure the campus.&#8221;
After initially calling for everyone to pray for Kirk, Vice President JD Vance shared a photo and another statement. &#8220;Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour. <a href="https://t.co/RqNYfHLs2b">pic.twitter.com/RqNYfHLs2b</a>
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance/status/1965857571492999312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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President Donald Trump gave a similar statement, saying, &#8220;We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” &#8211; President Donald J. Trump <a href="https://t.co/GqYC4QdhA1">pic.twitter.com/GqYC4QdhA1</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1965854672390148201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Charlie Kirk is a good man, doing big things for this country. I truly hope he’s okay,&#8221; comedian Adam Carolla offered his thoughts as well.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Charlie Kirk is a good man, doing big things for this country. I truly hope he’s okay.
— Adam Carolla (@adamcarolla) <a href="https://twitter.com/adamcarolla/status/1965856848357310586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Prayers for Charlie Kirk,&#8221; War Secretary Pete Hegseth added. &#8220;An incredible Christian, American, and human being. May the healing hand of Jesus Christ be upon him.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Prayers for Charlie Kirk.
An incredible Christian, American, and human being. May the healing hand of Jesus Christ be upon him.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1965851376027840581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Charlie Kirk is one of the finest humans I know. Everyone please lift him and his family up in prayer,&#8221; Donald Trump Jr. said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Charlie Kirk is one of the finest humans I know. Everyone please lift him and his family up in prayer.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1965861574616518814?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Actor and comedian Rob Schneider posted, &#8220;As we pray for our dear friend and brother in Christ, American Patriot, Father, Husband and son, Charlie Kirk, We know that our God is a loving God. And we must remember that vengeance is the Lord’s. Not ours. Deuteronomy 32:35 &#8216;To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence [sic]; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.&#8217; May Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior bless and heal our brother Charlie, and give peace to his family and friends at this time.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
As we pray for our dear friend and brother in Christ, American Patriot, Father, Husband and son, Charlie Kirk, 
We know that our God is a loving God. And we must remember that vengeance is the Lord’s. Not ours.
Deuteronomy 32:35 
“To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their…
— Rob Schneider 🇺🇸 (@RobSchneider) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobSchneider/status/1965863446215537011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Charlie Kirk is a great man and a great fighter for the cause. Most importantly he’s a husband and a father. I’m praying for him and his family right now. Please do the same,&#8221; The Daily Wire&#8217;s Matt Walsh added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Charlie Kirk is a great man and a great fighter for the cause. Most importantly he’s a husband and a father. I’m praying for him and his family right now. Please do the same.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1965851845412507975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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New Daily Wire host Isabel Brown added, &#8220;Please stop what you&#8217;re doing and pray for Charlie Kirk. PLEASE.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Please stop what you&#8217;re doing and pray for Charlie Kirk.
PLEASE.
— Isabel Brown (@theisabelb) <a href="https://twitter.com/theisabelb/status/1965849046133911853?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Charlie Kirk is a great friend and an amazing person! Lara, Luke, Carolina and I will be praying for him, his wife Erika and their 2 children,&#8221; Eric Trump said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Charlie Kirk is a great friend and an amazing person! Lara, Luke, Carolina and I will be praying for him, his wife Erika and their 2 children.
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTrump/status/1965852926548783465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said, &#8220;I’ve been briefed on the shooting in Utah. Casey and I are praying for Charlie Kirk and his family.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I’ve been briefed on the shooting in Utah. Casey and I are praying for Charlie Kirk and his family.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1965854741407346711?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Lord, place Your healing hands on my friend Charlie Kirk,&#8221; Ben Carson posted. &#8220;Please join me in praying for him right now. I don’t care who says prayer doesn’t work. They are wrong and it’s what we do.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Lord, place Your healing hands on my friend Charlie Kirk.
Please join me in praying for him right now. I don’t care who says prayer doesn’t work. They are wrong and it’s what we do.
— Ben &amp; Candy Carson (@RealBenCarson) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealBenCarson/status/1965853852433002782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We love you Charlie Kirk. Praying for you,&#8221; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We love you Charlie Kirk. Praying for you. <a href="https://t.co/ti1viJjM5L">https://t.co/ti1viJjM5L</a>
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecKennedy/status/1965853529266094107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre gave a statement as well, saying, &#8220;We must all strongly denounce the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Political violence is NEVER justified. The attacker must be brought to justice. And free speech must be upheld. Pray for Mr. Kirk and his family.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We must all strongly denounce the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Political violence is NEVER justified. The attacker must be brought to justice. And free speech must be upheld.
Pray for Mr. Kirk and his family.
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) <a href="https://twitter.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1965858876051603933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Absolutely disgusting and disturbing video from Charlie Kirk shooting today,&#8221; Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy posted. &#8220;Hoping for the best for him and his family. Anybody who is happy about this is a disgusting human.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Absolutely disgusting and disturbing video from Charlie Kirk shooting today. Hoping for the best for him and his family. Anybody who is happy about this is a disgusting human.
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) <a href="https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1965855907545551329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I feel sick to my stomach. Charlie Kirk,&#8221; Fox News National Correspondent Bill Melugin posted, adding a praying emoji.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I feel sick to my stomach.
Charlie Kirk 🙏🏻
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillMelugin_/status/1965855512525943235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Numerous politicians also posted that they were praying for Kirk.
<ul>
<li>House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA): &#8220;Please join us in praying for our good friend, Charlie Kirk.&#8221;</li>
<li>Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD): &#8220;There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop.&#8221;</li>
<li>Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): &#8220;This is horrific. I am stunned. @charliekirk11 is a good friend—we’ve been friends since he was a teenager—and a courageous leader. Heidi &amp; I are praying for Charlie right now. May God’s healing hand be upon him.&#8221;</li>
<li>Sen John Fetterman (D-PA): &#8220;I condemn this in the strongest terms. There is ZERO place in our great country for these horrendous acts of political violence. We must find a better way forward. May Charlie Kirk have a full and quick recovery.&#8221;</li>
</ul>

President Trump Holds Swearing-In Ceremony For Interim U.S. Attorney For D.C. Jeanine Pirro

‘Dear God, Protect Charlie In His Darkest Hour’: Prayers Pour Out For Kirk Following Shooting

'Dear God, Protect Charlie In His Darkest Hour': Prayers Pour Out For Kirk Following Shooting

Media

TPUSA

Vice President JD Vance on Saturday bluntly defended the Trump administration&#8217;s recent targeted U.S. Military strike of Tren de Aragua cartel drug smugglers.
&#8220;Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,&#8221; Vance posted to X.
Far-Left social media activist Brian Krassenstein replied to Vance, &#8220;Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.&#8221;
&#8220;I don’t give a s*** what you call it,&#8221; the VP bluntly responded. The response, only posted hours ago, already has over 1.3 million views.
<div id="attachment_969361" style="width: 895px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-969361" class="wp-image-969361 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-06-at-1.29.38-PM-885x576.png" alt="" width="885" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-06-at-1.29.38-PM-885x576.png 885w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-06-at-1.29.38-PM-300x195.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-06-at-1.29.38-PM-768x500.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-06-at-1.29.38-PM.png 1164w" sizes=" (max-width: 885px) 100vw, 885px" />Screenshot: X</div>
Vance later doubled-down, mockingly posting, &#8220;Democrats: let’s send your kids to die in Russia. Republicans: actually let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
Democrats: let’s send your kids to die in Russia.
Republicans: actually let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance/status/1964341366298660905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
This is certainly not the first time Vance has been blunt in his response to Left-wing defenses of apparent criminals. Vance notably went viral back in January when CBS anchor Margaret Brennan tried to argue about when exactly an Afghan national who was plotting a terror attack in the U.S. was radicalized. “I don’t really care, Margaret,” Vance memorably interrupted her argument.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
“I don&#8217;t really care, Margaret.“
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
<a href="https://t.co/qpAKCxDalh">pic.twitter.com/qpAKCxDalh</a>
— Ginny Robinson (@ImGinnyRobinson) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImGinnyRobinson/status/1883627417744625731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of Americans have suffered synthetic opioid-related deaths. During the open-border Biden era, tens of thousands of pounds of fentanyl were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). It&#8217;s unclear how much fentanyl made it into the U.S. illegally. Trump&#8217;s administration has not only closed the border and started deporting illegals, but they are being proactive with cartel members.
This past week, as referenced by Vance, Trump posted a video of the military strike against Tren de Aragua members in the Caribbean Sea. As noted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-drone-strikes-cartel-drug-boat-trump-posts-video-for-world-to-see-beware">The Daily Wire</a>, the strike took place in international waters and killed nearly a dozen terrorist cartel members carrying illicit drugs, according to Trump.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/vEVGYVgLAg">pic.twitter.com/vEVGYVgLAg</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1962990388211228951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
Additionally, Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-drone-strikes-cartel-drug-boat-trump-posts-video-for-world-to-see-beware?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=U.S.+Drone+Strikes+Cartel+Drug+Boat%2C+Trump+Posts+Video+For+World+To+See%3A+%E2%80%98BEWARE%21%E2%80%99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strikes</a> against drug cartels are only getting started, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio said on Wednesday that the Trump administration would no longer rely on stopping drug runners when they arrive on U.S. soil, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blow-them-up-rubio-says-trump-will-direct-more-strikes-against-narco-terrorists">The Daily Wire</a> reported. Instead, the United States will take out cartel members before they reach the country to spread their “poison.”
“Interdiction doesn’t work because these drug cartels — what they do is they know they’re going to lose 2% of their cargo. They bake it into their economics,” Rubio said. “What will stop them is when you blow them up. You get rid of them.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-drone-strikes-cartel-drug-boat-trump-posts-video-for-world-to-see-beware">U.S. Drone Strikes Cartel Drug Boat, Trump Posts Video For World To See: ‘BEWARE!’</a>

US-VOTE-POLITICS-DEBATE-VANCE-WALZ

‘I Don’t Give A S***’: Vance Goes Viral With Defense Of Cartel Strike

Drug Cartels

Fentanyl

Illegal Immigration

Marco Rubio

Tren De Aragua

Venezuela

MINNEAPOLIS — A strong wind was blowing as Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade pulled up in front of a Minneapolis church. It blew the vice president’s tie over his shoulder as he walked, and scattered Usha Vance’s hair as she took her husband’s hand. 
High above them loomed Annunciation Catholic Church, where a frenzied shooter in his twenties opened fire on children attending the first school mass of the year. Two children were killed, and many more were injured. Vance and his wife each carried a bouquet to honor the slain children, and they walked slowly up the steps to the church, reading the sidewalk chalk messages spread out before them. Thousands of donated flowers lined the walkway.
They paused in front of a statue of Mary, whom the church is named after, setting their bouquets in a basket before her. Someone had placed a small bouquet in the statue&#8217;s hand, and a long rosary dangled from her arm. Vance pointed out the inscription above her head to his wife: “This is the house of God and the gate of heaven.” 
No one spoke as they looked up at the church in apparent prayer, Vance making the sign of the cross. Even the protestors across the street barely made a sound. Then the Vances quietly went towards the church to meet the families whose children had been taken from them forever. 
<div id="attachment_968465" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-day-that-will-stay-with-me-jd-vance-meets-with-grieving-families-of-annunciation-shooting/vice-president-jd-vance-and-second-lady-usha-vance-pay-respects-to-victims-of-the-annunciation-catholic-church-shooting-in-minneapolis" rel="attachment wp-att-968465"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-968465" class="wp-image-968465 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232910448-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232910448-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232910448-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232910448-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232910448.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Alex Wroblewski-Pool/Getty Images)</div>
Ten-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel each had their own hopes and dreams, Vance reflected to reporters before he boarded Air Force Two to return to Washington. They were energetic, silly, beautiful children, beloved by their families, who never imagined they would lose them so soon.
Their friends commemorated them outside the church by writing little messages to the deceased youngsters on grave-like crosses erected under a little tent. 
“We will miss you,” a young hand wrote. 
“God be with you, I’m in your class,” scrawled another. 
“You were so loved,” the messages read, over and over and over. 
The vice president and his wife spent several hours speaking not only with Harper’s and Fletcher’s parents, but also with the parents of the injured children. They went to the Minnesota Children’s Hospital and met young Lydia Kaiser, who was recovering from surgery, and spoke with Weston Halsne, another victim, over the phone. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The scene outside Annunciation Catholic Church, where the VP and Second Lady are currently paying their respects. Thousands of flowers line the walkway. Messages of love and hope are written in sidewalk chalk and painted on stones.
One reads: “God is our refuge and strength.” <a href="https://t.co/wH0Az27B1a">pic.twitter.com/wH0Az27B1a</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1963295368373747968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
The vice president described the visit as “heart breaking” but “gratifying,” sharing that the parents “opened up their lives, opened up their hearts” to the Vances, speaking about their children and about their families and about the community that has rallied around them. 
And they asked him, Vance said, to speak not of the “brutal maniac” who slaughtered their children, but to speak of the “innocent children who lost their lives, and were full of life, and were people, people with hopes and dreams in their own right.” 
He emphasized that message by speaking of the children himself. 
“I wish that we talked a lot more about Harper, who was a beautiful young girl, who had a beautiful smile, the kind of smile that would turn a bad day into a good one,” Vance reflected, adding that Harper was “very proud of the fact that she just had her first communion a couple years ago.”
“I also wish we talked a little bit more about Fletcher,” he went on. “Fletcher was a very rambunctious and energetic kid. Was a beautiful kid. Had an incredible head of hair…”
Fletcher’s father, Vance, revisited the chapel with him where the shooter killed his son. 
“That was the first time he had been in the chapel since his son was taken from him,” Vance said. 
And the vice president himself echoed the grieving parents’ request: “We should talk more about these kids. We should talk less about the shooter, the crazy person who took these children from us. We should talk about these kids, their hopes and their dreams, and the fact that they had a full life ahead of them that was cut short.” 
Lydia Kaiser, who received a visit from the vice president and the second lady on Wednesday, was just recovering from surgery. According to a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-lydia-and-the-kaiser-family-heal">GoFundMe</a> set up in her name, Lydia was injured while she was protecting her little “buddy” — a younger student whom she was supposed to keep an eye on and help behave throughout mass. 

“Her father, our community’s beloved gym teacher, was also in attendance and helped secure the room, to keep children safe, and stuck with them all until they were reunited with their families,” the GoFundMe says, “even while his daughter was entering the emergency room. Lydia and Harry are two heroes in our midst.” 
Weston wasn’t well enough to meet the vice president in person, but he and his family did speak with the Vances over the phone. Vance, who had maintained a somber demeanor the entire day, broke into a big smile when The Daily Wire asked about Weston. 
“Usha and I spoke to him,” Vance told The Daily Wire, as Usha also smiled. “He had just got out of surgery so we weren’t able to see Weston, but we did talk to him on the phone. Just a little boy, thank God full of life, happy, recovering well.”
<div id="attachment_968469" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-day-that-will-stay-with-me-jd-vance-meets-with-grieving-families-of-annunciation-shooting/vice-president-jd-vance-and-second-lady-usha-vance-pay-respects-to-victims-of-the-annunciation-catholic-church-shooting-in-minneapolis-3" rel="attachment wp-att-968469"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-968469" class="wp-image-968469 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232923960-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232923960-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232923960-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232923960-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2232923960.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks to the press after paying his respects to victims of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting on September 3, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski-Pool/Getty Images)</div>
“I told him, he has a 15 year old older brother, I said, you can tell him from the vice president of the United States that your older brother has to be nice to you for at least the next week,” the vice president said. “Weston was very excited to hear that. But just a really beautiful family and I’m glad that he’s doing well.” 
Yet even as Vance shared the message of the parents: to focus on their children and not on the shooter, the tragedy of that shooting and the many ways in which it could have been prevented loomed like a spectre over the day. 
Protestors littered the streets near the church, advocating for gun control. Across the street, big signs were taped to the fence facing Annunciation church, reading: “Protect kids, not guns.” Beside them hung a massive transgender flag — an acknowledgment of the shooter’s trans-identification.
Bloomberg’s Kate Sullivan asked if Vance had heard about Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz call for a special legislative session to consider potential gun laws, but Vance would not get mired in the politics of gun legislation, telling her, “I’m not going to tell Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond to this tragedy.” 
He did say emphatically: “There is a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so that these shootings are less common.” 
The Daily Wire questioned Vance about the rise in trans-identifying shooters and whether authorities should be focusing on gender dysphoric individuals showing warning signs. Vance did not specifically mention the shooter’s gender identity issues, but he stressed that the parents he spoke with want authorities to be taking a serious look at the root causes. 
“Certainly we should be investigating people who are planning on targeting kids, and I think that one of the unfortunate lessons of this particular shooting is that this person who showed clear signs of derangement, slipped through the cracks,” Vance told The Daily Wire. 
He explained that the parents he spoke with came from across the political spectrum, describing them as “rational&#8221; and &#8220;reasonable” despite their grief. 
“Every single parent I spoke to wants something to happen,” he said. 
“I can’t imagine what I would be like in this moment of heartbreak, and all they asked is that we look very seriously at the root causes, that we look very seriously at the ways to prevent crazy people who are about to shoot up a school from getting access to firearms, these are things that a lot of us have talked about for a very long time.”
“These parents are grieving,” he added, “but they certainly want us to look at everything that we can possibly do so that the next family doesn’t have to deal with this.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Tributes to Harper (10) and Fletcher (8), who Robert Westman shot and killed last week as they were praying at their first school mass of the year. <a href="https://t.co/ivIMlivdjk">pic.twitter.com/ivIMlivdjk</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1963301134895849528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
Both Vance and his wife appeared emotionally impacted by the weight of the day — Usha Vance looked particularly sad, and she didn’t speak to the reporters gathered under the wing of Air Force Two, returning to the plane with her husband with a smile and wave. 
Vance himself appeared to have a catch in his voice as he reflected on his takeaways from the day. 
“I’ve had a lot of good days, a lot of interesting days…but I’ve never had a day that will stay with me like this day did,” he said. 
One little girl remains in serious condition, Vance said, and he looked into the camera to issue a plea to his fellow Americans. 
“If you are the praying type, say a prayer for this innocent girl, who is actually in surgery right now, that the swelling will go down, that she will be ok, because she’s still in the fight for her life, and every single family to a person is desperate that the death toll which currently is at two, stays at two,” he said. 
As for himself, Vance knows that there is nothing he, or anyone else, can say that will take away the grief that these parents are feeling. He plans to honor these grieving parents and their innocent children, “by being a better dad, and hugging my kids tight tonight, and making sure that they know that their dad loves them.”
“Because there are two families who are not going to get that opportunity ever again,” he said. 
“There are families in Minneapolis who will never get to do that again.”

Vice President JD Vance And Second Lady Usha Vance Pay Respects To Victims Of The Annunciation Catholic Church Shooting In Minneapolis

‘A Day That Will Stay With Me’: JD Vance Meets With Grieving Families Of Annunciation Shooting

Active Shooters

Minneapolis

Transgender

President Donald Trump said that tech tycoon and once-close ally Elon Musk doesn’t have a choice but to align with Republicans against the political Left.
Trump made the prediction on &#8220;The Scott Jennings Show&#8221; in an interview aired on Wednesday. The president said that Musk made a mistake in attacking the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; but that he would be welcomed back when he “works out” some problems.
“I don&#8217;t think he has a choice. So, what&#8217;s he gonna do? He&#8217;s going to go with the radical Left lunatics? You know, they&#8217;re lunatics. I don&#8217;t think he has a choice,” said Trump.
“He&#8217;s a man of common sense. He&#8217;s a good man. He got off the reservation incorrectly, and that&#8217;s okay because, you know, it&#8217;s just one of those things. But he&#8217;s a good person,” the president continued. “He&#8217;s got, you know, 80% super genius, and then 20% he&#8217;s got some problems. And when he works out the 20%, he&#8217;ll be great.”
Trump said that Musk regrets his split from the White House and the center of the Republican Party.
“He&#8217;s got some difficulty, but I liked him. I always liked him. I like him now, but he went off the reservation, and he wished he didn&#8217;t do it,” said Trump.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> reveals where things stand personally with <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a>&#8230;
These are two brilliant men and great Americans. I, like millions of others, really would love to see them get the band back together soon 👇 <a href="https://t.co/pywib1gJo0">pic.twitter.com/pywib1gJo0</a>
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1963347028198781416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
Musk broke with Trump over the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill,&#8221; criticizing the president’s landmark piece of legislation as a bloated bill with far too much spending. The tech tycoon then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-officially-announces-new-political-party-after-fallout-with-trump">pledged</a> to launch his own political party, the America Party.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” Musk said on X in July, referring to a poll he ran on his social media platform.
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste &amp; graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” he continued. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
Musk has reportedly put his plans for a new party on hold. The billionaire is hesitant to move forward with a new political party due to the rifts it would create between him and top figures in the GOP. One of those figures is Vice President JD Vance, whom Musk is reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-hits-pause-on-new-party-launch-while-he-weighs-backing-vance-in-2028">considering</a> backing in 2028.
Last month, Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-hits-pause-on-new-party-launch-while-he-weighs-backing-vance-in-2028">offered</a> similar comments to Trump about Musk, stating that Musk was instrumental in the president&#8217;s 2024 election victory.
“He did help us a lot in the election. And the president even says, with all his frustration, Elon was a very, very critical part of the team last election, and so my hope is by the midterms things are kind of back to normal,” Vance said.

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