Vance honors Charlie Kirk with White House broadcast of his show, calls on listeners to ‘shine the light of truth’

Vice President JD Vance hosted a special episode of "The Charlie Kirk Show" Sept. 15, broadcasting from the White House to honor his friend and ally, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated Sept. 10.

The two-hour Rumble livestream drew more than a million viewers and opened with a montage of clips and photos of Kirk at public events. 

Vance began by saying he was “filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’ll do my best.” 

He recalled Erika Kirk telling him her husband never raised his voice or acted in a mean-spirited way and said the best way he could honor Kirk was by being a good husband and father.

“Of all these moments that I shared just 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 realized that all of these moments that I get to have, Charlie is not able to have them anymore,” he said, adding later, “The best way that I could honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be to be the kind of husband to my wife that he was to his.” 

Vance, who flew Kirk’s body home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two last week, praised Kirk for helping get Donald Trump elected as president and him elected as vice president. He added, “So much of our success over the last seven months is due to his efforts.”

The vice president vowed that Kirk’s killer would be “brought to justice” and warned about the “incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years” that he said helped fuel the assassination. 

He added that the White House will target “the NGO network that foments, facilitates, and engages in violence.”

Vance’s first guest on the show was White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who called Kirk a “treasured friend.” Miller echoed Vance’s sentiments, saying that the last thing Kirk texted him before his death was that "we need to have an organized strategy to go after left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country."

“And I will write those words onto my heart,” Miller said, “and I will carry them out."

Other guests included White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Tucker Carlson, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

In his closing remarks, Vance prayed the Our Father and reflected on Erika Kirk’s struggle to tell her children their father had been murdered. 

He urged Americans to pursue unity rooted in truth, quoting Psalm 133: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” But, he added, “real unity can be found only after climbing the mountain of truth.”

Vance said Kirk believed every truth he told flowed from his Christian faith.

“The most important truth Charlie told is this: That long ago, a man begotten not made came down from Heaven and by the Holy Spirit was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day,” he said.

Vance argued that political violence is disproportionately celebrated on the left, citing a study that showed 24% of self-described “very liberal” respondents said it is acceptable to be happy about the death of a political opponent, compared with 3% of self-described conservatives, which he said is “of course, too many.” 

“People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” Vance said. “This is not a both-sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told.”

He called on Americans to “shine the light of truth like a torch in the very darkest places,” and as “St. Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians, to put on the full armor of God.”

“Let all of us put on that armor and commit ourselves to that cause for which Charlie gave his life: to rebuild a United States of America and to do it by telling the truth.”