LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Trump and other top administration officials eulogized right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and talked about what they described as the fight going forward. Donald Trump Jr. referred to Kirk as being like a little brother.
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DONALD TRUMP JR: His loss cannot be the end of the story. His legacy must be that when they took his life, a million more Charlies stepped up to fill the void.
FADEL: Kirk was a divisive figure who worked to bring young people into the conservative fold. He was assassinated nearly two weeks ago on a college campus in Utah. He was 31 years old. He was remembered yesterday as a political organizer, a Christian evangelist, a family man and a martyr.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith traveled with the president to Arizona for the memorial, and she is with us now after a very long day. Good morning, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So tell us what it was like.
KEITH: It was a massive event held in an NFL stadium that was packed to the rafters. People were decked out in red, white and blue. Many were wearing white T-shirts with the word freedom across the front, which is what Kirk was wearing when he was shot. It was part somber memorial, part political rally, part Christian revival. There were even pyrotechnics.
MARTIN: So thanks for setting the scene for us. So what stood out to you about the message?
KEITH: Just about every speaker came back to a central idea that the assassin's bullet wouldn't silence Kirk but make his message louder. There was also a lot of stark language about the evils of the left. President Trump spoke last.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal. He's a martyr now for American freedom.
KEITH: The president did veer off topic during his lengthy remarks, bringing up the 2020 election, tariffs and his political rivals, noting that while Kirk wished his political opponents well, quote, "I hate my opponent" and "don't want the best for them." He said it with a smile. The memorial was infused with Christianity, praise music, Bible verses, and that extended to government officials as well. Vice President JD Vance said he'd talked more about Jesus Christ in the last two weeks than in the rest of his public life, which he said was another legacy of Charlie Kirk.
MARTIN: Kirk was the founder and head of a group called Turning Point USA, which is aimed at advancing the conservative movement among younger people, especially college and probably even high school students. So what happens now with this movement?
KEITH: His widow, Erika Kirk, was selected by the group's board to be the new CEO of Turning Point USA. But right now she is also suddenly a young widow with two children. She remembered her husband as someone who lived fully. She said he died with incomplete work but not with unfinished business. And in a really emotional moment, she talked about her husband's efforts, as she put it, to save the lost boys of the West - young men, she said, like the one accused of killing her husband.
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ERIKA KIRK: I forgive him.
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KEITH: Forgiveness, she said, because that's what Jesus did, and it's what Charlie would do. It's not clear what comes next for Kirk's movement, or Trumpism, for that matter. But there was this sense that in that very full stadium, this was a moment people will look back on - a turning point, if you will.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Tamara Keith. Tam, thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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