It has been three months since Erika Kirk lost her husband, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in the beginning moments of his Prove Me Wrong tour at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Since the conservative activist and Turning Point USA Founder was murdered, conspiracies surrounding his death have littered social media, with unsubstantiated theories even pointing to his widow and his closest friends and team at TPUSA as complicit — and Erika Kirk has had it.
She left no viewer questioning her opinion on the matter when she sat down with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on Wednesday to settle it for the first time.
“My silence does not mean that somehow Turning Point USA and all of the hand-picked staff that loved my husband and my husband loved them, is somehow in on it,” she said.
“But here’s my breaking point on that,” she continued, “Come after me. Call me names. I don’t care. Call me what you want go down that rabbit hole, whatever. But when you go after my family, my Turning Point USA family, my ‘Charlie Kirk Show’ family, when you go after the people that I love, and you’re making hundreds and thousands of dollars every single episode going after the people that I love, because somehow they’re in on this.”
Without naming any specific individuals, her comments seemed to point to political commentator and podcaster Candace Owens, who has used her platform to portray the tragedy as a betrayal of TPUSA employees and “by people who eulogized him on stage.”
In her first public pushback against such conspiracy theories, Kirk acknowledged that her husband was a well-known public figure, and with that comes public opinion on everything, even his death. However, she asked for grace to be extended to her and her family, whose lives were personally devastated by Kirk’s death.
“We will be building the most beautiful memorial for my husband at Turning Point USA, and it will be for the world to see, and it will be spectacular. ... Can my babies have one thing where we hold it sacred, where my husband is laid to rest, where I don’t have to be worried about some secular revolutionary coming and destroying my husband’s grave while my daughter is sitting there praying?”
She explained that her past silence on the issue shouldn’t be interpreted as guilt but rather as her busy efforts to seek justice for her husband, manage TPUSA, and process the grief of her and her TPUSA family’s loss.
She called the conspiracy theories a “mind virus,” and said people like Owens should know that their comments have consequences.
“My team are not machines, and they’re not robots. They are human. We have more death threats on our team and our side than I have ever seen,” Kirk said.
She continued, “What are we supposed to do? Relive that trauma all over again? They watched my husband get murdered. I have no idea how I would have reacted if I was there that day, and thank the good Lord that I did not have to see that happen. But my team, they are rocked to the core. So why every single day do they have to be dragged through the mud?”
Kirk also said she is confident in the ongoing investigation and work being done by the judicial system to deliver justice.
In a response to a question from CBS News’ Bari Weiss about what she would say to Owens, Kirk replied, “Stop. That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Stop.”
Owens responded on social media to the comments Kirk made on Fox News on Wednesday night, claiming justification of her actions on her YouTube platform, which has more than 5.5 million subscribers.
She said it is “absurd” not to be able to critique a large organization because they are grieving, and criticized the FBI’s efforts to bring Kirk’s killer to justice.
On the left, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman defended Erika Kirk after liberal podcaster Jennifer Welch called her a “opportunistic grifter.”
“It’s gross and dehumanizing to attack a widow with young children after just witnessing his public assassination,” Fetterman, D-Pa., said. “It shouldn’t be controversial to put our political views aside and extend the grace for a deeply traumatized family to grieve.”
The case against accused Kirk killer Tyler Robinson
On Sept. 11, the alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody for Kirk’s assassination. The state of Utah is charging him with seven felony charges and one class A misdemeanor. The state is seeking the death penalty in the case.
Robinson made an appearance in Utah’s 4th District Court on Thursday.
Owens and others, including conservative commentator Tucker Carlson have vocalized their distrust with the FBI and remain skeptical that Robinson allegedly carried out the crime alone.
Several conservative figures have come to Erika Kirk’s defense.
Allie Beth Stuckey wrote, “Share the arrows with Erika and Charlie by refusing to engage in baseless accusations and conspiracies and trusting that CK’s family is more interested in justice than any podcaster is.”