Watch: Erika Kirk's powerful entrance at her husband's funeral
In a powerful and emotional eulogy at a memorial service attended by tens of thousands, Erika Kirk, the widow of assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk, announced her intention to continue her husband’s mission by taking over as the CEO of his organization, Turning Point USA.
She also offered a stunning moment of forgiveness for the man who allegedly shot her husband, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
Erika Kirk recounted the immediate aftermath of her husband’s assassination, describing the heartbreaking moment she arrived at a Utah hospital.
“I arrived at a Utah hospital to do the unthinkable: to look directly at my husband’s murdered body,” she said. “I saw the wound that ended his life,” she continued, her voice filled with emotion. “I felt shock, I felt horror and a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed.”
She recalled a small, personal detail she noticed about her husband as he lay there. She saw a single gray hair on his head, "which I never told him about," she said with a laugh. Yet, she also noticed "the faintest smile" on his lips, which brought her a sense of peace. Becoming more somber, she felt assured he did not suffer.
In what was described as the most powerful moment of the service, Erika Kirk publicly forgave the suspect in her husband’s murder, Tyler Robinson.
“I forgive him,” she said, bringing the stadium crowd to its feet and adding, without mentoning his name, “The answer to hate is not hate.”
Erika Kirk said her husband’s mission had been to save young men from unfulfilling lives “consumed with resentment, anger and hate.” Her voice breaking, she added, “He wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life.”
Following her moving remarks on forgiveness, Kirk announced that she would be stepping into her husband’s role at the helm of Turning Point USA. “Charlie and I were united in purpose. His passion was my passion, and now his mission is my mission,” she said.
Vowing to expand the organization’s reach, she promised that thousands of new chapters would be created and that the campus events her husband mounted would continue.
“The world needs Turning Point USA,” she stated. “It needs a group that will point young people away from the path of misery and sin. It needs something that will lead people away from hell in this world and in the next. It needs young people pointed in the direction of truth and beauty, and so I promise you today every part of our work will become greater.”
She made a powerful vow to honor her husband’s legacy: “Everything that Turning Point USA built through Charlie’s vision and hard work, we will make 10 times greater through the power of his memory.”