Erika Kirk gave an emotional address on the newly-renovated Rose Garden lawn as she accepted her late husband’s posthumous awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump. A day after Kirk’s assassination, the president had signaled he would be honoring the slain Christian and conservative political giant.
For context, though few need remembering, Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a Utah college campus on September 10th. Kirk had made it his life’s work to proselytize both his faith and conservative political values. He often did so on college campuses, where brainwashed students would hear an opposing viewpoint for the first time in their lives. Kirk was never mean or hateful; instead, he approached his debates with a smile and genuine desire to change minds based on faith and reason.
So it was on October 14th – the day that Kirk would have celebrated his 32nd birthday – that President Trump posthumously awarded him the highest honor the executive branch can bestow upon a civilian. Accepting the award on behalf of him was his widow Erika Kirk, who has since taken his place as CEO of Turning Point USA.
Speaking for nearly 15 minutes, Erika Kirk thanked the president for the honor he was blessing her family with. She recounted her husband as the loving man and father he was, understandably breaking to wipe away tears. She then spoke of his love of country and enduring faith.
“The blessings of liberty are not man’s invention. They are God’s endowment,” she said during the speech. “Charlie lived for those blessings, not as abstract words, but as sacred promises.
He used to love to journal about this topic all the time, and with such a heart postured of gratitude, and he believed that liberty was both a right and a responsibility. And he used to say Freedom is the ability to do what is right without fear.
“And that’s how he lived. He was free from fear. He was free from compromise, free from anything that could enslave his soul. His name, Charles literally means free man, and that’s exactly who my husband was. He was a free man, and from the time I met him, sitting across from him being interviewed on politics and philosophy and theology, anything that Charlie loved, any topic he loved,” she continued.
“And I just saw the fire in his soul, and there was this divine restlessness within him that came from knowing God placed him on this earth to protect something very, very sacred for all of us. And he never stopped fighting for people to experience freedom. He didn’t. Charlie often said that without God, freedom becomes chaos. And he believed Liberty could only survive when anchored to truth,” Kirk went on.
Speaking to Trump and the audience, she acknowledged what this day and award meant. “It’s such an honor and the recognition of a life lived for defending freedom, and that’s what Charlie fought for until his last breath, and it was written across his chest in those final moments, on one of his simple T shirts that always carried a message, and this one bearing a single word, freedom.”
Watch Kirk’s moving speech below:
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video