Erika Kirk delivered a moving and emotional address on Sunday, publicly forgiving the man accused of killing her husband, Charlie Kirk, and urging love and reconciliation in front of a crowd left in tears.
“He wanted to save young men. Just like the one who took his life,” she said through sobs, speaking from the stage of State Farm Stadium beneath the presidential seal.
She then declared: “I forgive him because it was what … Charlie would do.”
“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know … is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us,” Erika said with conviction.
She explained that she opposed capital punishment for Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with the murder. Speaking to the New York Times, she said: “I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger.
President Trump praised Charlie Kirk as “a great American hero” and promised that their children would grow up knowing their father’s legacy.
The president has repeatedly shared his grief, even likening Charlie to a son. Yet it was Erika’s words that stunned those present and moved countless others watching remotely.
Erika slowly approached the microphone to thunderous applause. Addressing more than 70,000 inside the stadium and a crowd estimated at 200,000 overall, she began: “God bless all of you for coming here from all over the world to honor and celebrate my Charlie.”
She described the agonizing moment she first saw her husband’s body in a Utah hospital. “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,” she said.
She spoke proudly of his vision and accomplishments. “He named his organization well. He knew things were not right with America, especially with young people, and that they needed a new direction,” she said about Turning Point USA.
“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,” she said.
“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 … My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life.”
Her voice quivered as she addressed Robinson directly. “That young man. That young man. … — that man, that young man, I forgive him,” she said, prompting a long standing ovation.
She also shared with the New York Times that she now wears the blood-stained St. Michael pendant her husband had on when he was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University.
The night before the tragedy, Erika recalled begging her husband to wear a bulletproof vest, while others urged protective glass. “Not yet,” Charlie had answered, insisting that he trusted his security team and the precautions already in place.
Erika reflected on the completeness of his life’s efforts. “He left this world without regrets. He did 100% of what he could do every day. But I want you all to know something. Charlie died with incomplete work, but not with unfinished business,” she said, drawing cheers and applause.
“I will miss him so much because our marriage and our family were beautiful, and still are. The greatest cause in Charlie’s life was trying to revive the American family,” she said.
She concluded by stressing his lifelong message to youth. “When he spoke to young people he was always eager to tell them about God’s vision to marriage, and how if they could just dare to live it out it would enrich every part of their live in the same way it enriched ours.”
We don’t forgive
That’s Cristian nonsense to “forgive sinners”. We don’t forgive murderers, we execute them. It’s called justice – plain and simple. Yoshka preached mercy and compassion for the sinners but was full of hatred for the chachamim. We’ve experienced quite a number of times the “compassion” that the yoshka followers had for the Jews over the millennia.
Thank you George Washington for saying it as well as you dis. What a stupid way of life. Besides, who is she to forgive? Will the assassin now be let free too? Sheer stupidity. He deserves death.