Erika Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA and the widow of Charlie Kirk, appeared Wednesday at The New York Times DealBook Summit for a closing interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
The event, held in New York, is known for featuring high-profile guests, including past appearances by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Sorkin noted at the start of their conversation that Charlie Kirk had been scheduled to appear at the summit before his assassination.
Sorkin referenced prior discussions he had with Charlie Kirk after mass shootings across the United States.
“He was a real believer, as you know, in the Second Amendment, and I’m curious how you think today about gun violence in America, given what happened to him,” Sorkin said.
Erika Kirk responded, “It’s a thoughtful question. And I wouldn’t wish upon anyone what I have been through. And I support the Second Amendment as well. I do. But there’s a bigger and much deeper conversation to all of that.”
Kirk said her work on college campuses exposed her to concerns frequently raised by students.
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She said campus counselors consistently told her that the primary issues facing students were “mental health, anxiety [and] depression.”
“And what Charlie knew, and he was trying to explain to students on campus, was that you have to understand that brain health is so important — how you eat, how you take care of yourself, how you nourish yourself, how you rest. And to him, it was much more deeper and intricate,” she said during her discussion with Sorkin.
Kirk said her experience since the assassination reinforced her belief that the underlying issue is not the existence of firearms, but the motivations and emotional state of individuals who choose violence.
“And what I’ve realized through all of this is that you can have — you can have individuals that will always resort to violence. And what I’m afraid of is that we are living in a day and age where they think violence is the solution to them not wanting to hear a different point of view. That’s not a gun problem. That’s a human, deeply human problem. That is a soul problem. That is a mental — that is a very deeper issue,” she said.
During the interview, Kirk also said she removed social media from her phone following the killing of her husband.
“Social media, like many things, it can be used for such good. And it can be used for such evil,” she said.
“And Charlie and I both intentionally, especially after he was murdered, I took it all off my phone. I don’t even have news apps on my phone. I have nothing on my phone. I let other people post for me and siphon through those comments. That is not — I do not have the brain space for that, and it would not be healthy for me either. I get called so many names, I genuinely don’t care. I really don’t. I told you this before — when you cast the bloody dead body of the person that you love, it pales in comparison to being called x, y, z.”
She added that Charlie Kirk had long recognized the role of social media in his work but made a point to limit his personal exposure to it.
She described their weekly routine, noting that Charlie would disconnect from technology each Friday evening.
“It did not happen overnight. This is something that he leaned into. And on Friday night, when he would get home from work, he would turn off his phone and he would shove it in the junk drawer, and he would say, ‘Shabbat Shalom,’ shove it in the drawer, and he was full Dad mode, fooling with the kids, sports mode on Saturdays for college football, and he could breathe,” she said.
Kirk said that the weekly break from digital engagement gave her husband the opportunity to rest and focus on time with their family.
“He had this sacred moment to just breathe and to rest and get away from the chatter, get away from the world and just have a moment to understand that life is so much bigger than the To-Do list, than the small problem that you’re facing that you’ll laugh at five years or five months, or five minutes from now. And he was really good about that,” she said.
