'Certain things mark…': Erika Kirk on why she doesn’t want to see Charlie's assassination video
In an interview with Fox News, Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, discussed his last moments.
Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, has revealed that she didn't watch the video of her husband's assassination and that she doesn’t intend to.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated while addressing a public event in September this year, and images and footage of the incident quickly circulated widely online.
"I never saw the video; I never will see it," she said in an interview with Fox News.
Speaking of the assassination, she said she didn't want to watch the video and did not want her children to watch it as “there are certain things in your life that mark your soul forever”.
"I never want to see it. There are certain things you see in your life that you can never unsee. There are certain things you see in your life that mark your soul forever. I don't want my husband's public assassination to be something I ever see. I don't want my kids to ever see that," she added.
This interview comes after Erika faced scrutiny when, at a recent Turning Point USA event, her hug with US Vice President JD Vance, described by Erika as a gesture of mutual respect, went viral online, sparking speculation.
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Erika Kirk discussed the night before the assassination
The night before the conservative activist was assassinated, Erika and their daughter slept in the room while Charlie slept in their daughter's room to ensure a good rest before his public event.
"That night, he [Charlie] was so excited. I mean, he was like, 'I can't wait, it's going to be the best,'" she recounted to Fox News.
"He came in, and he grabbed that [wedding ring and necklace], and then he left. I didn't even get to give him a kiss goodbye," she added. Kirk remained in Arizona that day to attend to her mother's medical issue. "[Charlie] was like, 'Home needs you. Home needs you; be home. Come with me on Thursday to the next event we have,'" Erika said.
The next day, after Erika had just watched the video of her husband tossing hats into the crowd at Utah Valley University, she received the call informing her about the shooting.
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‘I will never forget the moment’: Erika Kirk
"Mikey [McCoy] called me," she said. "I'll never forget him just being like, 'Charlie's been shot. He's been shot, get the kids. Get security, get the kids, get the kids, he's been shot.' I sprinted out of her treatment center and just collapsed in the middle of the parking lot."
Kirk was shot in the neck by a single round from a bolt-action rifle.
Erika called the moment "an unbelievable nightmare."
"The way the bullet hit him, he died instantaneously," she said.
"He died on the scene. But I'm so glad he didn't suffer; I'm so glad he didn't suffer. No one deserves to suffer, but a handful of people. He literally blinked and probably thought he was raptured and looked around and was like, 'Where's everybody else?' He blinked, and he was with the Lord," she added.
Kirk's final image for Erika
Erika revealed that she had voiced safety concerns to her husband. "I used to say, 'Charlie, have you ever thought about wearing a vest?'" she said.
"He would nod to that and be like, 'You know, I've looked into it,' but he would always say, 'If they're going to get me, they're gonna get me.' He wasn't afraid. It wouldn't have mattered anyway if you wore a vest," she told Fox News.
"I responded back to him and said, with all due respect, sir, I want to see what they did to my husband, and I want to give him a kiss because I didn't get to give him a kiss this morning," she explained.
She described her husband's body in the hospital as looking "so alive."
"I'm just so glad I saw him because... when you see someone at the mortuary, they never look the same," she reflected. "They have awful makeup and they're cold. He was still warm, and his eyes were slightly open. It was so powerful. He had this smirk on his face."
That final image, she said, represents Charlie's undying spirit and mission.
"That smirk to me is that look of 'you thought you could stop what I've built,'" Erika said.
"This vision, this movement, this revival, you thought you could do that by murdering me. You got my body. You didn't get my soul," she added.
