Vice President JD Vance Hosts ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’
on Sep 15, 2025
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The Vice President Hosted The Show To Honor The Slain Conservative
On September 10, Charlie Kirk, the influential 31-year-old conservative who founded the student organization Turning Point USA, was killed while addressing students at Utah Valley University.
His death has sparked a national discussion on political violence in America, with many politicians and other prominent figures offering tributes to the late commentator who was an outspoken Christian and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump.
However, it was perhaps the words of his wife, Erika, the mother of Charlie’s two children, which has tugged on the hearts of Americans of all political stripes most strongly.
During her live video remarks on September 12, which were delivered beside the vacant desk of The Charlie Kirk Show, Erika said, “The radio and podcast show that he was so proud of will go on, and, in a world filled with chaos, doubt, and uncertainty, my husband’s voice will remain, and it will ring out louder and more clearly than ever.”
She added, “His wisdom will endure.”
On Sunday, September 14, Vice President JD Vance announced he would be hosting The Charlie Kirk Show on September 15.
Airing on Salem News Channel, and streaming on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, The Charlie Kirk Show began in 2019 and was often among the top political podcasts.
JD Vance Hosts ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ From The White House
As the broadcast of the September 15 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show began, a montage of Charlie Kirk speaking and interacting with others played, set to Andrew Word’s acoustic worship song, “Unfailing.”
Then, the stream from the White House began.
Typically, Charlie hosted his show from his studio in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where Turning Point USA’s headquarters is located.
“I’m filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’m going to try to do my best,” Vance said, adding that Charlie was his “dear friend.”
Days prior to this broadcast, Vance had Air Force 2 transport Charlie’s remains to Phoenix for burial.
“The last several days have been extremely hard for our country,” Vance said. “They’ve been hard for me, hard for my family, hard for the countless people in this building [the White House] … Every single person in this building owes something to Charlie.”
He added, “He was a critical part of getting Donald Trump elected as president, of getting me elected as vice president.”
Further, Vance offered, “I don’t think I’m alone in saying that Charlie was the smartest political operative I ever met.”
Recalling how Charlie’s widow, Erika, spoke of her late husband, Vance emotionally stated:
“I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband, and I needed to be a better father. Because of all these moments that I shared, just in the last few days, the books that I’ve read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and kissing them and hugging them before bed, I just realize that all of these moments that I get to have, Charlie is not able to have them anymore, and Charlie’s kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore.”
Continuing, Vance said the best way he could honor the life and legacy of Charlie was to be the best husband and the best father that could.
He then vowed to “commit to keep [Charlie’s legacy] forever alive.”
Guests on this episode include HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Watch the broadcast on YouTube, here:
Karoline Leavitt Speaks On Charlie’s Influence As A Millennial
Vance kicked off his interview with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt by noting that she was once a part of Turning Point USA.
“I’m a Gen Z conservative, so I was really raised within the MAGA movement,” she replied, adding that her demographic is “very much a part of the Turning Point USA movement.”
At the age of 18 in 2012, Charlie founded Turning Point USA.
Today, Turning Point USA reports it has over 3,500 schools represented, over 2,000 student groups, and 800 faith groups.
“My political education was not just through the rise of Donald Trump, but through the rise of Charlie Kirk,” Leavitt said.
In 2022, at the age of 25, Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire, and she says it was through that campaign that she first met Charlie.
Vance asked a particularly strong question of Leavitt regarding her role as a communicator for the White House in light of Charlie’s skills as a speaker.
Responding, Leavitt said:
“Most of all, standing firm in your convictions and picking a fight, especially when you know you have the facts and the truth on your side, but doing it with a smile — and that’s something Charlie did so brilliantly and well. He would go to these campus reform events and he would say to the crowd, ‘If you disagree with me, come to the front of the line,’ and I find myself doing that in the briefing room.”
When Charlie was killed on September 10, he was engaged in one of his popular “Prove Me Wrong” segments of his college campus tour, encouraging disagreement and the open discussion of ideas.
She added, “He inspired me as a young voice for President Trump … Before every briefing, I always pray to Jesus Christ, and Charlie was so outspoken in his faith, then I will continue to be in honor of him.”
RFK Jr. Speaks On His “Spiritual Soulmate,” Charlie Kirk
Looking back on how a one-time Democratic presidential candidate from one of the most celebrated political families in American history came to join the Trump coalition, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noted that he announced he was endorsing Trump for president at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona.
“Charlie was probably the primary architect for my unification with President Trump,” RFK Jr. said, noting it was Charlie’s idea for the announcement to be made at a Turning Point USA event.
Even the fireworks that were lit as RFK Jr. and Trump shook hands were Charlie’s idea, RFK Jr. revealed.
“I think both of us approached each other with some trepidation, because we came from such different places,” RFK Jr. said, thinking back on when they first met in 2021 amid the ongoing investigation into the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. “By the end ofv that interview, I felt like I’d met a spiritual soulmate.”
Noting that Charlie certainly backed Trump, RFK Jr. expressed how Charlie would still regularly speak with him during the 2024 campaign leading up to the eventual merging of the movement: Make America Healthy Again.
Describing Charlie as a pragmatist, RFK Jr. also told Vance of how Charlie was an idealist.
“His principal preoccupation was conversation,” RFK Jr. said. “He thought conversation is the only thing that could heal our country. With all these forces, and particularly the algorithms on social media that are driving us apart — and it’s inexorable, there seems to be nothing that can stop it — he understood that the only thing that could bridge that gap was debate.”
He added that Charlie knew we “had to say what we mean without being mean.”
On June 5, 1968, RFK Jr.’s father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was running for president, and he was shot multiple times at a presidential campaign event in Los Angeles, California.
He died the next day, on June 6, 1968, almost five years after RFK Jr’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Alluding to the violent nature of Charlie’s death, RFK Jr. told Vance:
“What [Charlie] said is the answer [to our division] is conversation and dialogue, and we need to learn to do that if our democracy is going to survive … We need to talk to each other even though all these things are telling us not to.”
Tucker Carlson Speaks On Charlie Kirk As A Peer In Media
“Tell me about your buddy, Charlie Kirk,” asked Vance of conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Immediately, Carlson replied, “That his Christianity was sincere, and his commitment to Jesus was totally sincere … Sometimes [that faith] isn’t, especially in public figures who throw out Bible verses they don’t understand … But, in his case, it informed every single part of his life.”
Admitting that he didn’t at first take Charlie seriously, as Charlie is about the same age as Tucker Carlson’s children, he said that as the years went on, he began learning from Charlie.
“The main thing that I learned from him was how to disagree with people on topics that you take very seriously and they take very seriously without hating them, without feeling bitterness.”
Citing the divides within the Republican party, Tucker said of Charlie, “He wasn’t mad at the people who disagreed with him. He liked them as people. He agreed with them on some things, and he would always say that.”
Learn more about Turning Point USA, as well as how to start a chapter, by visiting its website.
