Vice President JD Vance described the “very tough moment” in which he revealed that conservative political activist Charlie Kirk had been fatally shot to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office during an appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime Wednesday (September 17) night.
“I was the person who walked into the Oval Office and said, ‘Mr. President, I’m sorry but Charlie’s passed,” Vance said via FOX News. “That was a very tough moment.
“We supported each other in that moment as you do with your friends, but man, that was a bad, bad day,” he added.
Vance, 41, had concluded a meeting in his West Wing office when he received messages regarding Kirk’s shooting on September 10 at around 2:30 p.m. ET.
“I looked at my phone and there were a bunch of group chats — frankly, a lot of them that Charlie was in — where they said ‘Charlie, praying for you, brother. Hope you’re doing OK,’” Vance said. “I opened up my door and someone said ‘Charlie has been shot’ and it hit me like, ‘this is very real, this is very serious.’”
The vice president said he and his team spent the “next hour” working to get confirmation on Kirk’s condition, eventually contacting the pundit’s chief of staff Mikey McCoy.
“The news was discombobulated. Nobody knew what was happening. It was a very chaotic moment. There was a brief period where we were getting good reports from the hospital,” Vance said.
Vance said he and his staff received confirmation of Kirk’s death approximately an hour before Trump shared the news publicly, having rushed down the hall to the Oval Office to notify the president, where he embraced White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“She doesn’t show emotion. She’s even keeled the whole way. I just gave Susie a hug and I guess all of us kind of lost it,” Vance said.
The vice president described Trump as being “very stoic” after being notified of Kirk’s death.
“The president is very stoic. He was clearly upset. He just went quiet and let it absorb a little bit. And then just shook his head and said, ‘Man, he was a good guy and we really loved him.’”
Vance confirmed that he watched a video of the shooting once but refused to a second time.
“I don’t want to see that happen to my friend ever again,” he said of Kirk’s death.
Vance, who hosted an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show on Monday (September 15) following the host’s death, credited Kirk, 31, for introducing him to President Donald Trump and speaking in favor of him as a potential running mate. The vice president and his wife, Usha, accompanied Kirk’s casket on an Air Force Two flight to Phoenix last Thursday (September 11), one day after the assassination took place at Utah Valley University.
A memorial service for Kirk is scheduled to be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, next Sunday (September 21). Kirk was fatally shot in the neck during what was scheduled to be the first stop on his ‘American Comeback Tour’ last Wednesday (September 10).
The suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, was announced to have been in custody and publicly identified by police last Friday (September 12). Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, at the age of 18 along with tea party activist William Montgomery in 2012.
The political pundit gained notoriety debating liberal students, winning over conservative financiers. Kirk enthusiastically supported President Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and served as a personal aide to his son, Donald Trump Jr., during the campaign, while also gaining a regular presence on cable news.
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