Five days following the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, Vice President J.D. Vance hosted a special installment of Kirk’s eponymous podcast to join calls for a comprehensive government initiative to investigate and disband left-wing organizations in the country that he claims incite violence.
“We are going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates, and engages in violence,” Vance declared on The Charlie Kirk Show, referring to non-governmental organizations.
Investigators are still learning what motivated a gunman to shoot and kill Kirk during a college event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Utah Governor Spencer Cox stated on Sunday that Tyler Robinson, the suspect in custody, was cooperating with investigators.
Political violence has escalated in recent years. Donald Trump has been the target of at least two assassination attempts, Democratic politicians have been attacked and killed, and violent rioters assaulted police officers and stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump and other senior political leaders have utilized Kirk’s killing to advocate for a crackdown on specifically left-wing political violence.
As his initial guest on Kirk’s podcast on Monday, Vance invited senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller to discuss “all the ways we are trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence we are seeing on the far left.”
Miller stated that one of the final messages Charlie Kirk sent him indicated that the Trump administration requires a strategy to address left-wing organizations promoting violence. “I will write those words on my heart and I will carry them out,” Miller affirmed. Miller added that since Kirk’s killing, he is experiencing sadness and anger. “Unfocused anger or blind rage is not productive,” Miller observed. “But focused anger, righteous anger, directed for a just cause is one of the most important agents of change in human history.”
Vance commenced the show by sharing how, during Trump’s 2024 campaign, Kirk was among those encouraging Trump to choose Vance as his running mate. Kirk “was advocating for me,” Vance stated, adding that he aimed to “use this show today to advocate for him.”
Other guests featured on the show included Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tucker Carlson, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and White House Communications Director Taylor Budowich.
