OAN Staff Blake Wolf and Brooke Mallory
1:23 PM – Monday, September 15, 2025
Paying tribute to his close personal friend, Vice President JD Vance hosted a special Monday episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” to honor the 31-year-old conservative activist, who was assassinated last Wednesday in Utah at a speaking event.
The episode was broadcast from Vance’s office in the White House — being livestreamed into the White House press briefing room.
Vance and Kirk, whose friendship spanned nearly a decade, became close in 2017 when Kirk reached out after seeing Vance on television. The initial contact led to a lasting bond, with Kirk playing a role in Vance’s political career.
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Kirk supported Vance’s 2021 Senate run and he was instrumental in connecting him with Donald Trump Jr., which some say ultimately influenced President Trump’s selection of Vance as his vice-presidential nominee.
Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of Kirk’s show, had announced on Sunday, the day before, that the GOP vice president would be hosting Monday’s episode, simply because “he asked if he could do it.”
“It came about because he asked if he could do it, and I said, ‘Of course, sir,’” Kolvet stated. “Charlie and JD were friends. They were actual friends.”
The show reportedly garnered over 200,000 live viewers, and it began with Vance characterizing Kirk as a “visionary” and “the smartest political operative I ever met.”
“The last several days have been extremely hard for our country,” Vance stated. “He was a critical part of getting Donald Trump elected as president, getting me elected as vice president and so much of our success over the last seven months is due to his efforts — his staffing, his support and his friendship. I don’t think that I’m alone in saying that Charlie was the smartest political operative I ever met.”
“He created a whole social network for an entire generation of young people,” he continued.
The camaraderie between Vance and Kirk kicked off in 2017, after Kirk reached out to Vance in order to commend him on his performance during a broadcast interview.
“That moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today,” Vance stated, while revealing that Kirk was one of the first people he called when he was deciding to run for the U.S. Senate in 2021.
Vance also spoke about meeting with Kirk’s heartbroken widow, Erika, in the aftermath of the fatal single shot last week.
“What an honor it was for me and my family to be welcomed into the Kirk inner circle in their moment of grief,” Vance stated.
During his visit with Erika, Vance recounted that he was, at first, unsure of what to say to the young widow, but she told him to remember that Kirk was in a better place now — while emphasizing that he was an outstanding father and husband, never raising his voice to her or being mean-spirited.
“Charlie never raised his voice to me. He was never crass or mean-spirited,” she said.
Vance described the sensitive moment, acknowledging that he couldn’t say the same about himself. He expressed that this realization inspired him to strive to be a better husband and father.
“I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” Vance said.
“I didn’t try to console her, because how can you console a person who just lost a loving husband and father?” he stated. “But we just talked about Charlie. We talked about who he was, we talked about some of our favorite stories. We talked about some of his idiosyncrasies and all the things that made Charlie Kirk who he was.”
At one point in the show, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson dropped in to make an appearance as well, prompting Vance to ask him what he loved the most about Kirk.
“That his Christianity was sincere and his commitment to Jesus was totally sincere, and it, you know, sometimes isn’t, especially in public figures who throw out Bible verses they don’t understand,” Carlson stated.
“In his case, it informed every single part of his life, from his marriage to the way he treated his children, to the way he treated his staff, to the way he approached disagreement, to the way he thought of other people, which was always primarily as people first,” Carlson continued.
“I met him when he was a teenager, he’s literally the age of one of my children, so it was kind of hard to take him seriously at first. And over the years that I knew him, you know, more than 10 years, I ended up learning from him. And I’m not just saying this because he’s passed, I mean that sincerely. The main thing I learned from him was how to disagree with people on topics that you take very seriously and that they take very seriously, without hating them, without feeling bitterness,” Carlson added.
Vance also spoke with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who argued that there was a “vast domestic terror movement” behind Kirk’s murder with “actual organized cells.”
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government, to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks, and make America safe again for the American people,” Miller stated. “It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
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