Vice President JD Vance, a friend of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, traveled to Salt Lake City on Thursday to meet with Kirk’s family and accompany them and Kirk’s body back to Phoenix.
Kirk was fatally shot at Utah Valley University on Wednesday during a Q&A event. The shooter was still at large as of Thursday afternoon.
Vance, who canceled previous plans to be in New York City for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack, traveled to Utah with his wife, second lady Usha Vance.
The vice president was a close friend of Kirk, who called Vance the future of the MAGA movement in a recent Deseret News interview.
Kirk, 31, the founder of Turning Point USA, one of the country’s largest youth conservative groups.
Vance and the second lady will meet with Kirk’s family and close friends in Salt lake City.
Then, Vance will fly Kirk’s casket and family aboard Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where Kirk lived, a source familiar with his plans confirmed to the Deseret News.
The Deseret News reporters who were covering the event described seeing Kirk get shot and go limp. He was later pronounced dead at Timpanogos Regional Hospital.
It was Kirk’s first stop on his “The American Comeback Tour,” where he hosted a “Prove Me Wrong” debate session with college students over political issues.
President Donald Trump issued a video statement Wednesday evening in honor of Kirk, and many other Trump administration officials and Congressional Republicans shared prayers and thoughts for him and his family.
Vance posted a lengthy tribute on X about his relationship with Kirk, which began in 2017.
“Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind. Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives,” Vance wrote.
“When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right — as he usually was — he was generous,” he continued. “With Charlie, the attitude was never, ‘I told you so.’ But: ‘welcome.’”
Vance said Kirk was one of the first people he called when he considered running for the Senate in 2021. Kirk introduced Vance to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, he said.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, speaks at a campaign event as Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, left, listens Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. | Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press
Once Vance became vice president, Kirk advocated for him while also expressing sympathy when Vance worried about how the spotlight affected his children.
“Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayer,” Vance wrote.
Vance said some of his most successful events had been put on by Kirk’s Turning Point USA.
“He wasn’t just a thinker, he was a doer, turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists,” he wrote.
Vance, acknowledging that Kirk was viewed as a controversial political figure, noted that he had seen people attack Kirk for years over issues but he always worked to “broaden the scope of acceptable debate.”
“Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him,” Vance wrote, noting he was in group chats with Kirk and was in the West Wing when he heard the news of the shooting.
“God didn’t answer those prayers, and that’s OK. He had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I’ll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends, and the country he loved so dearly,” he continued.
“You ran a good race, my friend. We’ve got it from here,” Vance concluded.
