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A candlelit vigil for Charlie Kirk outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah late last night.
Vice President JD Vance has penned a long tribute to Charlie Kirk, a close friend and partner in boosting the popularity of President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.
Vance praised Kirk and said he was a pivotal figure in the launching of his own political career as well as introducing him to Trump, and in securing Trump’s presidential election wins.
Vance wrote on X that he first encounter Kirk in around 2017 when Kirk sent him a Twitter direct message praising his appearance on Fox News.
He accepted that — much Vance himself — Kirk was initially a Trump skeptic.
“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,” he wrote.
Kirk introduced Vance to Trump while describing the now two-time president as “misunderstood.”
“Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too,” Vance wrote.
Vance said Kirk died “doing what he loved: discussing ideas. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions.”
“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,” he wrote.
“You ran a good race, my friend. We’ve got it from here.”
The New York Yankees tonight held a moment of silence in memory of Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot while at a public event in Utah on Wednesday.
Hundreds of people were there at Utah Valley University to see conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who had just thrown hats to the cheering crowd and posted on X: “WE. ARE. SO. BACK,” touting the first stop on what he called the American comeback tour.
The 31-year-old conservative star who rallied young people behind President Donald Trump.
He had just started talking under a white tent when witnesses say one shot rang out.
Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist who co-founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 and went on to become a leading voice in President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, died today after being shot at a political event in Utah.
The popular podcast host and married father of two young children was 31.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump announced in a post on Truth Social.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!” Trump added.
Kirk’s death came in an atmosphere of growing threats and violence against political figures on both sides of the aisle, from Trump to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to state lawmakers in Minnesota.
Read the full story here.
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