Two days after the killing of Charlie Kirk made national headlines, the late public speaker’s podcast went live once again. This time, with an empty chair in his honor.
“I wanted the friends of this show, and of Charlie that knew him best, the Thought Crime Crew, to be here in the studio to commemorate our friend, dear brother, for this sacred, solemn moment,” producer Andrew Kolvet said. “This occasion none of us ever dreamed we would have to do. And here we are. Because Charlie would’ve wanted us to be here. He would be upset if we weren’t here.”
“The Charlie Kirk Show” was the flagship podcast for the titular host, who rose to prominence with the conservative organization Turning Point USA. Kirk built a brand on this organization, traveling to college campuses across the country to host political debates, generally against left-leaning college students.
It was at one such appearance that Kirk was killed Wednesday. The speaker was set up at Utah Valley University on the first stop of his “Prove Me Wrong: The American Comeback” tour. It was then that onlookers heard a gunshot, with video capturing a bullet penetrating Kirk’s neck.
President Donald Trump announced that Kirk had died later on Wednesday.
“We of course have left his chair open and empty, because nobody will ever fill it,” Kolvet said on “The Charlie Kirk Show” Friday. “Nobody could ever hope to. But, by all of us together, we want to honor him, and we to be more like him, and we want to be inspired by him.” You can watch the clip below.
Despite President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the rhetoric of the “radical left” was responsible for terrorism like Kirk’s death, the identity of the shooter was then unknown. Friday — the same day that “The Charlie Kirk Show” went live again — a suspect was brought into custody for the commentator’s killing.
The shooter was identified by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
“We want you in the audience to know him like we knew him,” Kolvet said of Kirk. “To be up close and personal to the front row seat to history, to a legend, to an American icon that we got every single day.”
