Charlie Kirk’s widow vows to carry on fight, warns ‘evil-doers’
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US Vice-President J.D. Vance arriving in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife Usha Vance (right) and Ms Erika Kirk, the wife of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, on Sept 11.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PHOENIX, Arizona – The widow of prominent right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has pledged to carry on her husband’s work, telling “evildoers” responsible for his death “you have no idea what you have just unleashed”.
The 31-year-old Mr Kirk was hit by a single bullet
A suspect – 22-year-old Tyler Robinson – is in custody
Mr Kirk was an electrifying presence on the US right, with a huge young following that helped Mr Donald Trump win the election last November.
A heartbroken Ms Erika Kirk on Sept 12 mourned the loss of “the perfect father… the perfect husband.”
“The evil-doers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” she said in a live video address.
“If you thought my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea,” she said on Fox News that same day. “You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, and this world.”
“The movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen,” she said.
Ms Kirk said her husband’s college tour and radio show would continue.
The tour had 14 more dates planned at college campuses. The next stop was scheduled for Sept 18 at Colorado State University.
His radio show and podcast The Charlie Kirk Show aired daily, and Ms Kirk said it would continue.
Ms Kirk encouraged young people to join her husband’s organisation, Turning Point USA, or start their own chapter.
‘Work trip with Jesus’
The organisation and Mr Kirk had courted controversy.
Mr Kirk’s hardline views on race, gender, gun ownership and other hot-button issues made him an intensely divisive figure, although even opponents praised his willingness to debate.
He claimed that the civil rights legislation of the 1960s had turned into an anti-white weapon and mocked what he described as America’s deification of Martin Luther King Jr.
Turning Point USA conferences and shows regularly hosted conspiracy theorists and fellow provocateurs, including Mr Alex Jones, the broadcaster who lost a US$1.3 billion
“Charlie wants you to make a difference, and you can,” Ms Kirk said.
She additionally thanked law enforcement, first responders, Mr Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance for supporting her family in the last few days.
She said she has not found a way to tell her three-year-old daughter that her father has died.
“He’s on a work trip with Jesus,” she said. AFP
