Upon receiving the first Charlie Kirk Legacy Award at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards on Thursday night, Erika Kirk told the room to never stay silent.
“For the rest of my life, I will make sure that I don’t stay silent. I’ll keep speaking the truth, no matter the cost,” she said, “and I pray that all of you do too.”
She spoke with conviction about her late husband, conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk — a man who was known for encouraging young people to center their lives around faith, families and patriotism.
Kirk said her husband never fled from the truth and the “spiritual battle that’s ahead.”
“This whole nation feels the spiritual warfare,” she continued, “But Charlie would say, ‘that’s how you know you’re over the mark. When you feel it, when the enemy is there, that’s how you know you’re doing the Lord’s work, and that’s how you know you’re defending truth.’”
Charlie Kirk was assassinated in the beginning moments of his “Prove Me Wrong” debate at Utah Valley University, where an estimated 3,000 people stood as witnesses. Before he was killed, some of his last spoken remarks were about his faith in God and love for his country.
Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from the St. George area, has been arrested and charged in the shooting.
Kirk gives first media interview
In her first media interview since the death of her husband, Kirk sat down with Fox News’ Jesse Watters and spoke about her seven-year relationship with her husband, her experience the day of his death, the events that followed, and how the world has reacted to his killing.
She said Charlie Kirk changed the most in the years she knew him when he became a father to their two young children.
“His relationship with them was so pure and precious because you see him being on stage in front of thousands of people, commanding the presence, telling them all about Western civilization, telling them all about what’s going on in the world, telling them why they should care,” she said. “And then you see him come home and just be a dad.”
How anyone could celebrate the death of any human or say he deserved to die, she said, is something she couldn’t begin to understand.
“There’s so much beauty in life,” Kirk said. “I don’t know why you would waste your time saying somebody deserves to be publicly executed in front of everyone. ... why would you say that?”
Though the video of her husband’s assassination spread all over social media for hours before it was removed, Kirk said she never saw it and never will.
“Again, that could have been your parent, your spouse, your loved one. You think it’s funny until it’s someone you love,” she added. “I would just ask them to really reassess their priorities in life if they get a high off of watching someone be murdered.”
Kirk seemed to have shocked the country when speaking at her husband’s funeral, when she publicly forgave his alleged killer, Tyler Robinson. Watters asked how she did it.
Kirk said she decided it the night before, while going over her speech.
“There was a portion in there that I remember putting about how Charlie was trying to save the Lost Boys of the West. He was trying to save the exact type of individual who murdered him. And when I reread that the night before ... it was just weighing on my heart. Forgive him,” she said. “A lot of people in this world think that forgiveness is a weakness or that when you forgive, you forget. And it’s the exact opposite. It’s a form of freedom.”
Robinson has only appeared virtually before the court three times since he was apprehended on Sept. 12, though he is expected to be in person at his next hearing, scheduled for Jan. 16, 2026.
Kirk said she wants the Utah judge overseeing the alleged assassin’s case to reject a motion to remove news cameras from the courtroom. “There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered,” she argued. “Why not be transparent? There’s nothing to hide. I know there’s not because I’ve seen what the case is built on.”
“Let everyone see what true evil is,” she continued. “Let everyone see and know how it happened, how it even got to this point. This is something that could impact a generation and generations to come of understanding there is never a justifiable moment for violence, especially political violence.
When asked if Robinson is convicted, should he receive the death penalty — which the prosecution is seeking — Kirk said she doesn’t want to make that decision:
“I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger when I stand before the Lord. I want the government to decide. It’s biblical, too. Justice will ultimately be served.”