‘I forgive him’: Watch Erika Kirk voice powerful message for Charlie’s assassin
Erika Kirk, the widow of Christian martyr Charlie Kirk, delivered a tearful, powerful message Sunday for the assassin who executed her husband, expressing her personal forgiveness.
“My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men. Just like the one who took his life,” Mrs. Kirk said through tears at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
“That young man. That young man. On the cross our Savior said, ‘Father forgive them for they not know what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him.”
“I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do.
“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
Erika Kirk: “I forgive him!” This is a true testament of Christ! pic.twitter.com/K0ztmGQqwZ
— DeVory Darkins (@devorydarkins) September 21, 2025
Dressed in white before a crowd of more than 70,000 inside and an estimated 130,000 more outside, Erika explained: “Eleven days ago, God accepted that total surrender from my husband and then called him to his side.”
“On the afternoon of Sept. 10, I arrived at a Utah hospital to do the unthinkable: To look directly at my husband’s murdered body. I saw the wound that ended his life, I felt everything you would expect to feel. I felt shock, I felt horror and a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed.”
“But there was something else, too. Even in death I could see the man that I love. I could see the single gray hair on the side of his head, which I never told him about – now he knows. Sorry, baby.”
Erika said Charlie, the founder of Turning Point USA, was “ready to die” and that “he named his organization well. He knew things were not right with America, especially with young people, and that they needed a new direction.”
“Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the lost boys of the West. The young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith and no reason to live. The men wasting their lives on distractions and the men consumed with anger and hate.”
“When he went onto campus, he was looking to show them a better path and a better life that was right there for the taking.”
President Donald Trump spoke after Erika, and publicly comforted her on stage to conclude the memorial service.
President @realDonaldTrump comforts @MrsErikaKirk pic.twitter.com/6Sf3aHed8I
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) September 21, 2025
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WATCH: ‘Charlie Kirk was a prophet,’ Turning Point USA official proclaims
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