Erika Kirk did her first sit-down interview since the assassination of her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which aired on Fox News on Wednesday night. The 36-year-old mom of two recalled several details from the day of his death, including the fact that she never got to kiss her husband goodbye.
The night before Charlie was assassinated, she said he slept in their daughter’s room while she and their daughter slept in the master bedroom.
“I said, ‘I want you to have a good night’s sleep. Go ahead and sleep in her room, and I’ll turn the air down so it’s nice and cozy in there … I just want you to get a good night’s sleep so you can be amazing tomorrow,’” she told Fox News host Jesse Watters.
“And so Gigi and I stayed in our room, and that morning he woke up super early, and he came into our bedroom, into the bathroom, because that’s where his wedding ring was and his necklace, and he came in and he grabbed that and then he left. I didn’t get to give him a kiss,” Kirk recalled.
“That night, he was so excited. I mean, he was like I can’t wait, it’s going to be the best,” Erika remembered. She said Charlie encouraged her to stay home in Arizona to be with her mother, who was experiencing a medical issue.
“[Charlie] was like, home needs you. Home needs you, be home. Come with me on Thursday to the next event we have,” she explained.
Because she didn’t get to kiss him goodbye that fateful day, Erika insisted that she kiss Charlie before his body was sent to the morgue, despite being told by doctors and a police officer that it wasn’t a good idea.
“I said, ‘With all due respect, sir, I want to see what they did to my husband, and I want to give him a kiss, because I didn’t get to give him a kiss this morning.’”
“I’m just so glad I saw him because … when you see someone at the mortuary, they never look the same,” Erika told Watters. “They have awful makeup, and they’re cold. He was still warm, and his eyes were slightly open. It was so powerful, Jesse. He had this smirk on his face.”
“We walked into that room, and he had this smirk on his face,” she went on. “That smirk to me is that look of: you thought you could stop what I’ve built. This vision, this movement, this revival, you thought you could do that by murdering me. You got my body. You didn’t get my soul.”
Erika also mentioned never seeing the video clip of Charlie being shot and planning to keep it that way.
“I never saw the video, I never will see it,” Erika said. “I never want to see it, there are certain things you see in your life that you can never unsee. There are certain things you see in your life that mark your soul forever. I don’t want my husband’s public assassination to be something I ever see. I don’t want my kids to ever see that.”
She also told Watters how she found out her husband had been shot.
“[TPUSA chief of staff] Mikey [McCoy] called me,” Erika said. “I’ll never forget, him just being like, Charlie’s been shot. He’s been shot; get the kids. Get security, get the kids, get the kids, he’s been shot. I sprinted out of [my mother’s] treatment center and just collapsed in the middle of the parking lot, called our security. Unbelievable nightmare.”
One thing the grieving widow takes comfort in is the fact that Charlie didn’t suffer.
“The way the bullet hit him, he died instantaneously,” Erika went on. “He died on the scene. But I’m so glad he didn’t suffer, I’m so glad he didn’t suffer. No one deserves to suffer, but a handful of people. He literally blinked and probably thought he was raptured and looked around and was like, where’s everybody else? He blinked, and he was with the Lord.”
Erika discussed how her 3-year-old daughter is dealing with the loss.
“It’s really sweet because I keep explaining to her a few things, and I said, ‘If you ever want to talk to Daddy, you just look up to the sky and start talking, and he can hear you,’” she said. “I told her, ‘You know, Daddy is in heaven’ … and she goes, ‘Do you think I could go sometime?’” Erika said through tears.
“I said, ‘Baby, we will all go one day.’”
Watters also asked Erika what should happen to Tyler Robinson, the man accused of murdering her husband, and whether he should receive the death penalty. She had previously made a powerful statement during Charlie’s memorial service by saying she forgives Robinson for what he did.
“I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger when I stand before the Lord,” Erika told Watters. “I want the government to decide. That’s biblical, too … Justice will ultimately be served.”
She also said cameras should be in the courtroom during Robinson’s murder trial.
“There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered,” Erika told Watters. “There have been cameras all over my friends and family mourning. There have been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear.”
“We deserve to have cameras in there,” the grieving widow added.
“Why not be transparent?” she said. “There’s nothing to hide. I know there’s not, because I’ve seen what the case is built on.”
Robinson was charged with aggravated murder and six other counts after turning himself in to the police following the fatal shooting.
“Let everyone see what true evil is,” Erika told Watters. “This is something that could impact a generation and generations to come.”
