We're sorry. We can't write the regular briefing today. Like many of you, we knew Charlie Kirk. The political ramifications of this horrible murder, this act of political terrorism are, frankly, impossible to fathom.

Charlie was young, charismatic, incredibly talented, incredibly hard-working, with a beautiful wife, and two young kids. He was a deep believer in Jesus Christ. His children were at the event. His toddler daughter ran towards him because she was scared of the noise. His daughter ran towards him because she was scared of the noise.

He was not an extremist, he occupied the center of gravity of the Republican Party, and constantly reiterated the importance of free speech and political dialogue. He was murdered in cold blood, in a premeditated way, at an event where he invited all his fellow Americans to dialogue and debate with him.

Every single good human being is speechless and aghast and angry now.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

—

We think the best thing we can do right now is to copy the best remembrances we can think of.

First, of course, Vice President JD Vance, with what is clearly a personally-written and heartfelt testimony:

"A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.

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. When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right--as he usually was--he was generous. With Charlie, the attitude was never, "I told you so." But: "welcome."

Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for senate in early 2021. I was interested but skeptical there was a pathway. We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr. "Like his dad, he's misunderstood. He's extremely smart, and very much on our wavelength." Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too.

Long before I ever committed (even in my mind) to running, Charlie had me speak to his donors at a TPUSA event. He walked me around the room and introduced me. He gave me honest feedback on my remarks. He had no reason to do this, no expectation that I'd go anywhere. I was polling, at that point, well below 5 percent. He did it because we were friends, and because he was a good man.

When I became the VP nominee--something Charlie advocated for both in public and private--Charlie was there for me. I was so glad to be part of the president's team, but candidly surprised by the effect it had on our family. Our kids, especially our oldest, struggled with the attention and the constant presence of the protective detail. I felt this acute sense of guilt, that I had conscripted my kids into this life without getting their permission. And Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers. Some of our most successful events were organized not by the campaign, but by TPUSA. He wasn't just a thinker, he was a doer, turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists. And after every event, he would give me a big hug, tell me he was praying for me, and ask me what he could do. "You focus on Wisconsin," he'd tell me. "Arizona is in the bag." And it was.

Charlie genuinely believed in and loved Jesus Christ. He had a profound faith. We used to argue about Catholicism and Protestantism and who was right about minor doctrinal questions. Because he loved God, he wanted to understand him.

Someone else pointed out that Charlie died doing what he loved: discussing ideas. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions. If it was a friendly crowd, and a progressive asked a question to jeers from the audience, he'd encourage his fans to calm down and let everyone speak. He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas.

Charlie had an uncanny ability to know when to push the envelope and when to be more conventional. I've seen people attack him for years for being wrong on this or that issue publicly, never realizing that privately he was working to broaden the scope of acceptable debate.

He was a great family man. I was talking to President Trump in the Oval Office today, and he said, "I know he was a very good friend of yours." I nodded silently, and President Trump observed that Charlie really loved his family. The president was right. Charlie was so proud of Erika and the two kids. He was so happy to be a father. And he felt such gratitude for having found a woman of God with whom he could build a family.

Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him. I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other's chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life. These group chats include people at the very highest level of our government. They trusted him, loved him, and knew he'd always have their backs. And because he was a true friend ,you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to. So much of the success we've had in this administration traces directly to Charlie's ability to organize and convene. He didn't just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.

I was in a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats started lighting up with people telling Charlie they were praying for him. And that's how I learned the news that my friend had been shot. I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in.

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.

You ran a good race, my friend.

We've got it from here."

We will post our own remembrance only because it echoes the Vice President's and those of so many others, and therefore gives a flavor of what a profoundly good man Charlie Kirk was:

"I didn’t know Charlie well, but I did have the honor of knowing him a little bit.

I truly, genuinely, have nothing but good things to say about him.

He was brilliant, intelligent, charismatic, full of energy.

And a true believer. And yes, based. He hid his power levels. He had the voracity for thought and ideas that college dropouts so often have. He read widely, voraciously, and thoughtfully, and let it inform his thinking. He was strategic about how he communicated his views but he came by them earnestly and seriously.

I also just want to note just how enormously talented and impactful he was. He was one of the most successful and popular conservative commentators in the world, period, at an astonishingly young age, an occupation which you may think whatever you like about but is certainly enormously competitive and where one doesn’t rise to the top without incomprehensible amounts of talent and hard work.

He was also a great activist. Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action are not, I can personally vouch for it, donor grifts. They are very serious political operations that do excellent work, which is so rare in that world. He made enormous contributions to the ground game in 2024, which is an area where Republicans are chronically outmatched by Democrats.

Two reasons why that’s important.

First, imagine the skill set. As I texted a GC a few minutes ago, imagine if, in a different generation, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove had been the same person. These are totally different games requiring totally different skill sets. And to both of them he brought an incredible amount of intelligence, deliberateness,,energy, and hard work.

Secondly, he didn’t have to do it. He could have made just as much money, and spent many more nights in his own bed, just speaking into a microphone for a living. But he really was a patriot who wanted us to win.

He really was a tremendous man and it’s a tremendous loss.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family."

William Wolfe, Executive Director of the Center for Baptist Leadership:

"This gets even worse when you consider that Charlie Kirk—more than anyone else in America on the right or the left—built his platform making a good faith effort to model civil poltical discourse and debate in the public square.

His entire project was built on reaching across the divide and using speech, not violence, to address and resolve the issues!"

Michael Knowles, who needs no introduction:

"Charlie Kirk would have been president. His friends knew it. His admirers knew it. And his enemies knew it.

This universal confidence in Charlie’s future began with his countless political accomplishments. At 18, he founded Turning Point USA, which went on to become the most important cultural organization on the American Right. By 22, he was addressing the Republican National Convention. Three years later, he founded Turning Point Action, which led the get-out-the-vote efforts that delivered the first Republican popular vote victory in twenty years. In his spare time, Charlie published five books, hosted a national talk show, married a lovely wife, and fathered two beautiful children. All of that by 31.

Charlie’s appearance inspired as much confidence as his accomplishments. At a towering six-foot-five slouching, he joked that he had descended from the Nephilim—the giant “fallen ones” of the Old Testament. He might have been born with such a nature, as are we all, but he was not content to remain so. Charlie loved his Savior. The zeal with which he debated politics paled in comparison to the excitement with which he discussed religion. And his religious life bore fruit.

Turning Point launched a Faith division to focus specifically on his followers’ souls. There too, Charlie’s enthusiasm for open debate set the tone, as he invited atheists and even Catholics to take part. But he didn’t need a specific religious conference to convey his faith. Charlie Kirk’s religion bore fruit in everything he did.

Discerning observers believed in Charlie Kirk, not chiefly for his accolades or his appearance, but for his manifest virtue. Charlie’s prudence, the principal virtue in politics, built a generational coalition that helped to transform the American government. His temperance distinguished him as one of the few on the Right to eschew whisky, cigars, and every other delight that might have distracted him from his purpose, for which he had so little time. His sense of justice produced clarity in moral vision and grace for his opponents. His fortitude impelled him to enter the public square without a hint of servile fear.

Charlie’s only fear was the holy sort—awe and wonder, the beginning of wisdom—and his clearest virtues were theological: faith, hope, and charity. We mourn his death, we take up his cause, and we entrust him, as he confidently entrusted himself, to God’s care."

Jonathan "Lomez" Keeperman, Founder of Passage Press:

"Every story I read about Charlie Kirk is the same: a man unfailingly generous with his time and his talents.

My Charlie Kirk story is no different. He contacted me very soon after my dox and offered me the biggest platform I had ever been on to tell my story and bring much needed publicity to my new publishing venture. Behind the scenes he was supportive and highly engaged. Moreso than you might think. He and his fantastic team were unafraid to champion ideas from the right that other conservative hosts of his stature would never have touched. He, perhaps more than any figure aside from Trump, paved the way for the right to reshape itself and take on the cause of the American people. He did it with intelligence and sincerity and his own subtle touch of mischievous humor.

He really was a great man. At only 31 years old he was wise beyond his years. Like Trump he had a tremendous gift for feeling and seeing the wave before it comes. He was smart enough to trust his gut and humble enough to change his mind and redirect his thinking as the times called for it. Some, very few, just have it. And Charlie just had it.

When he invited me to his studio in Phoenix last spring I jumped at the chance and brought my eldest son along with me. Charlie had just finished two hours of his morning show, then had an hour with me, and 45 minutes later was taking a flight to UC Riverside for an event before flying back to the Arizona studio for another taping that night. According to his producer, every day was like this. He truly lived his beliefs and his mission in a way few others do. And despite this break-neck schedule he took extra time to show my son around his offices, his memorabilia, his Jon McNaughton oil paintings, and sign a book for the young guy.

After Charlie left, I was introduced to the TPUSA staff, then the Turning Point Action staff. I saw hundreds of bright and motivated young people all working under Charlie’s supervision toward the same goal of making America great again. This was as impressive an operation as I have ever seen. Charlie was an absolute force of nature. Anything was possible for him. No limit to his potential.

He will be greatly missed. I will miss him. I am angry in ways I do not recognize. I am deeply saddened for his children and his wife. And I will do what I can to honor his memory.

Charlie Kirk, God bless you. Yours is a seat that will never be filled."