A lip reader revealed the emotional exchange between Erika Kirk and Vice President JD Vance during her first Turning Point USA campus event since her husband Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Introducing Vance as a “very, very dear friend” to roaring applause at the University of Mississippi, Erika embraced him before he led a lengthy student Q&A session.
“I’m proud of you,” Vance said to Kirk as they separated, lip reader Nicola Nickling told The Mirror.
According to the expert, the heartbroken widow solemnly replied: “It’s not gonna bring him back.”
The event came seven weeks after the death of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder who was fatally shot during a Sept. 10 speech at Utah Valley University. The assassination, captured on video, sparked nationwide outrage over rising political violence. Suspect Tyler Robinson, 22, was later arrested and charged with aggravated murder and related offenses, facing a possible death-by-firing-squad sentence if convicted.
Erika Kirk, a mother of two, grew emotional as her late husband’s voice introduced her on stage before 10,000 supporters at the university event. It was her first TPUSA event since her husband’s death. Appointed CEO after the shooting, she nearly backed out of attending, according to the lip reader.
“I can’t do this, I don’t want to do it,” she told her assistant before her appearance, adding, “Give me a second.”
“You guys have no idea how helpful it is to have all you in my life … you make me feel even more connected to my husband,” Kirk, 36, said as she dabbed her tears with a tissue.
She spoke for about half an hour before she brought Vance on to the stage. Vance remembered Kirk as the “most effective person in politics that I have seen.”
