Vice President JD Vance made his media hosting debut on Monday as the guest host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,“ using his turn as moderator to play host to a series of White House officials and Kirk associates as he praised his longtime friend as “the smartest political operative I ever met” and scold those who spoke out about Kirk’s opinions after his death.
“I wanted to use this show today to advocate for Charlie,” Vance said, “to talk about him, to talk about what kind of a guy he was, talk about what kind of a man he was, what kind of a husband and father he was, and to take people, most of them from inside the administration, but some of them from without, who knew Charlie best, and to talk about what he meant, what he meant to them, what he meant to this administration, and what he meant to the conservative movement.”
But toward the end of the broadcast, Vance also lashed out at those he felt made a mockery of Kirk after the assassination, referencing times when people yelled at his own kids over his political views. He urged conservatives to call the employers of those who may celebrate Kirk’s death.
“We‘re not always going to get it right,” Vance said. “We will sometimes move more slowly than you would like. We will sometimes move more slowly than I want us to, but I promise you that we will explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say.”
Vance said he was broadcasting from his office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The vice president, who cultivated a close friendship with the late Turning Point USA CEO over the past decade, announced on Sunday that he would serve as the Monday host.
The program began with a tribute montage of Kirk discussing the operation he built with Turning Point USA, his conservative youth movement, and a bagpipes medley.
The two-hour program then saw a wave of Trump administration officials — including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, deputy chiefs of staff Stephen Miller and Taylor Budowich, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and friends of Kirk, such as “The Charlie Kirk Show” producer Andrew Kolvert and media star Tucker Carlson, sharing stories of their experience with Kirk and what he meant to conservatives and President Donald Trump’s re-election.
“You’d always want Charlie on your team, because the guy would get there first, make as many calls, and he was the best fundraiser that we had,” Budowich said.
Kirk was killed on Wednesday while speaking with college students at Utah Valley University. Authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson on Friday, charging him with aggravated murder in connection with Kirk’s death. He will be formally arraigned on Tuesday.
Miller also blamed “left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country” for Kirk’s death, saying he would channel his anger over his death to abolish “the organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.”
The show had previously left Kirk’s chair empty as his conservative media friends, including producer Andrew Kolvet and friend Jack Posobiec, eulogized him on Friday’s broadcast.
In speaking with White House press secretary, Vance said the college students who debated Kirk during his campus tours asked better questions than the journalists who appeared in the White House Briefing Room, who Vance labeled as “radicals.”
Carlson, 56, also said he grew to respect the 31-year-old Kirk despite his relative youth. He said he ultimately learned from Kirk “how to disagree with people on topics that you take very seriously, and that they take very seriously without hating them, without feeling bitterness.”
“He just never forgot there was a person behind our views, and that inspired me,” Carlson said.