Vice President JD Vance praised Charlie Kirk's wife, Erika Kirk, for exhibiting "incredible courage" in the aftermath of her husband's death.
Vance spoke Monday while hosting "The Charlie Kirk Show" just five days after the Turning Point co-founder and CEO was assassinated in Utah.
The vice president canceled his scheduled attendance at New York's annual Sept. 11 memorial ceremony, choosing instead to travel to Salt Lake City to console Charlie Kirk's family.
"When I first met Erika, his lovely wife and such an incredibly brave soul, I'm not sure if you saw her brave remarks after Charlie died. If you haven't, I would encourage you to go see them because you see this raw grief and incredible courage all in the same moment," Vance said on the podcast.
"And that's what we need right now. We need to grieve, but we also need this courage at this moment more than we've ever needed it."
Vance said Erika Kirk hugged him and said she loved Charlie Kirk so much.
"I said, 'Erika, we love you so much. He died way too young, but he died a happy man because of you, because of the family, and the home and life you guys had built together.'"
Vance admitted that although he's "a person who literally speaks for a living ... I had no idea what to say."
Erika Kirk on Friday spoke directly to the "evildoers" responsible for her husband's assassination, saying they have "unleashed" a movement that will become more powerful in his death.
In a roughly 17-minute address carried live by Newsmax, her first public comments since her husband was gunned down, Erika Kirk began with many thank yous to the president and vice president, first responders in Orem, Utah, and law enforcement, "who worked tirelessly to capture my husband's assassin," never mentioning the suspect, Tyler Robinson, by name.
While hosting on Monday, Vance lauded Charlie Kirk for being the "smartest political operative I ever met."
"Every single person in this building, we owe something to Charlie," Vance said while speaking from the White House.
Charlie Kirk, 31, died at the hands of a rooftop gunman on Wednesday at Utah Valley University. The suspect is in custody after being turned in by his father, but he is not cooperating with investigators, according to Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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