Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, said Sunday that she forgives the man accused of killing her husband.
“On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them. For they not know what they do.’ That man. That young man. I forgive him,” Erika Kirk said at her husband’s memorial, with her voice softening and tears streaming down her face.
Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with first-degree aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. Utah County Attorney General Jeff Gray said at a Tuesday press conference that the state will seek the death penalty for Robinson.
Erika Kirk, though, told The New York Times that she wants Robinson’s punishment to be determined by the legal system — not her wishes.
“I’ve had so many people ask, ‘Do you feel anger toward this man? Like, do you want to seek the death penalty?’” Kirk said. “I’ll be honest. I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this. I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger.”
Kirk reiterated that message during her eulogy Sunday. The 36-year-old received a lengthy standing ovation when she was called to the stage, and was emotional throughout her remarks.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said. “The answer we know from the Gospel is love, and always love."
During her remarks, Kirk reflected on her relationship with her husband and her emotions on the day of his murder and in the time since. She recalled seeing his lifeless body in the hospital and feeling shock, horror and “a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed.”
She added, though, that she “could see the man that I love,” with the “one, single gray hair on the side of his head” and a faint smile on his face.
“That told me something important,” she reflected. “It revealed to me a great mercy from God in this tragedy. When I saw that, it told me, Charlie didn't suffer.”
Since her husband’s murder, Kirk said, “God’s love continued to be revealed to me.” She recalled a conservation with second lady Usha Vance the day after her husband's death, during which she admitted, “Honestly, I do not know how I am going to get through this.” The Vances flew to Utah on Air Force Two, and brought Charlie Kirk’s casket to Phoenix on the vice president’s official plane.
The second lady, though, compared it to the hectic last 15 minutes of a flight, and told Erika Kirk she “will get through these 15 minutes. And the next 15 minutes after that."
“Usha, I don’t think you realized it then, but those words were exactly what I needed to hear,” she added.
On Thursday, the board of Turning Point USA unanimously elected Kirk as the organization’s new CEO. Her husband founded the conservative advocacy group in 2012.
In her eulogy, Kirk pledged to pick up where her husband left off.
“The world needs Turning Point USA,” she said. “It needs a group that will point young people away from the path of misery and sin.”
The Kirks met in 2018 and married in 2021. Together, they have two children, a daughter and a son.
The memorial took place inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. The Kirks lived in nearby Scottsdale, Ariz.
“I will miss him. I will miss him so much because our marriage and our family were beautiful. They still are,” Kirk said.
Source: The Hill - News
