‘He Gave Them A Microphone’: Erika Kirk Demolishes Claims Her Husband ‘Incited Violence’

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) CEO Erika Kirk preemptively rejected claims her late husband, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, encouraged violence during a CBS News town hall which aired Saturday evening.

Charlie Kirk was gunned down during a Sept. 10 TPUSA “Prove Me Wrong” event at Utah Valley University during which he was debating attendees. During the CBS event, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) senior writer Angel Eduardo asked Erika Kirk about a survey projecting one-third of college undergraduates support using violence to cut off disfavored speech. (RELATED: Charlie Kirk Show Breaks Silence To Address Candace Owens’ Conspiracy Theories)

We live in a divided country. A country where many people feel that they can’t speak across the political divide–or across their own kitchen table.

One of the goals of the new CBS News is to change that.

Tonight’s town hall with Erika Kirk is the first of many conversations… pic.twitter.com/2mIffJZFUA

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 14, 2025

“For the people who say that my husband might have incited violence — I know that was not your question, but I’m gonna put a squash on it before anyone else can attach to that — my husband never incited violence,” Kirk said shortly after she lashed out at those who attempted to justify her husband’s murder. “He never once said, ‘Go after them because they’re saying, ‘XYZ’ and they deserve to die.’ My husband never once said that. He never would.”

“What did he say?” Kirk continued. “‘Come to the front of the line, I’ll put my mike down. Tell me why you believe that.’ ‘Well, that’s interesting, I never thought of that, but have you thought of this?’ [To people] heckling and laughing at them, [he’d say,] ‘Stop. It took a lot of courage for them to come up here. Stop doing that.’ He gave them a microphone. He didn’t take away a moment for them to speak back, he gave them a microphone. And what did they do? They gave him a bullet in the neck.”

TPUSA has reportedly received over 100,000 inquiries about starting affiliate chapters since Kirk’s assassination, though some efforts to start high school chapters are meeting resistance in parts of the country. In Royal Oak, Michigan, for example, liberals criticized the school board for allowing a high school chapter to form, while an Albemarle County, Virginia, school board member came under fire for comparing TPUSA to the Ku Klux Klan.

In Prince William County, officials resisted the formation of a TPUSA chapter at Patriot High School, prompting one parent to light into the county’s school board.

“My husband knew that something as simple as having a conversation could change the world,” Mrs. Kirk said.

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