J.D. Vance hosts Charlie Kirk show, pledges to honour friend by being a better husband

US Vice-President J.D. Vance on Monday hosted the radio programme of Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist who was assassinated last week, telling listeners that the best way he knows how to honour his friend is to be a better husband and father. Vance hosted The Charlie Kirk Show from his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. The live streaming of the two-hour programme was broadcast in the White House press briefing room and featured a series of appearances by White House and administration officials who knew the 31-year-old Kirk. Vance, who accompanied Kirk’s body home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two last week, opened by saying he was “filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’ll do my best”. The Republican vice-president, 41, was especially close to Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organisations with chapters at high schools and colleges. The two began a friendship nearly a decade ago, and Kirk advocated for Vance to be Republican Donald Trump’s choice for vice-president last year. Vance spoke on Monday about sitting with Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and being at a loss for words. But he said she told him something he will never forget, which was that her husband had never raised his voice to her and was never “cross or mean-spirited to her”. Vance allowed that he could not say the same about himself. “I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” the vice-president said on the programme, which was streamed on Rumble. “That is the way I’m going to honour my friend.” After Kirk was fatally shot last Wednesday at Utah Valley University, Vance tore up his schedule for the next day – he was expected on Thursday to attend the 24th annual observance in New York of the September 11 attacks – to fly instead to Orem, Utah with his wife Usha Vance. The two accompanied Erika Kirk back to Arizona aboard Air Force Two with Charlie Kirk’s casket. Also on Monday, a 19-year-old was tracked down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and arrested after prosecutors said he threatened “mass murder” against Jews and minorities following the killing of Kirk. Jace Allen of Jamestown, New Mexico, promised to “shoot up unspecified locations” in the series of public threats he posted on social media, while using the alias “Jebron Lames”, on Thursday, according to prosecutors. The FBI’s eGuardian counterterrorism system, which tracks threats, noticed Allen’s posts and alerted the agency, an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit. The FBI linked the social media account Allen used to his phone and home address, then visited and interviewed him at his home later on Thursday, a day after Kirk was killed, prosecutors said. At Allen’s home, he told agents, according to the affidavit, that he “identifies as a neo-Nazi and hates Jews and minorities”. The affidavit also says that “Allen believes a civil war is inevitable in the United States and wants to help spark the civil war by terrorising people online”. Allen has been charged with sending communications containing a threat to injure another person, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico said. He was arrested on Friday, court records show. A federal public defender representing Allen did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday. Soon after Kirk was killed, according to the affidavit, a social media user wrote to Allen, saying, “do you think it’s wise to be calling for mass violence after a right-wing influencer just got assassinated? Have some self-conscious thoughts please”. In response, the affidavit says Allen posted: “Nah I’m already on my way to commit a mass murder the time for talking is over.” In addition to minorities, Allen is accused of threatening to kill “libs” and an Ohio city council member. “You’re gonna be one of the first to die,” Allen wrote in a post directed towards the council member, according to the statement. “I’ll be seeing you soon.” The council member was not identified in the filing. Allen also posted that he would “harm anyone who has something bad to say about Charlie [Kirk]”, the affidavit says. In his series of social media posts, he claimed to have bought a gun, according to the filing, which suggests he never actually bought one. The FBI special agent investigating Allen wrote in the affidavit that “Allen does not own any guns, but wanted to buy a rifle with a scope – the same make, model, and style that was used to assassinate Charlie Kirk”. Additional reporting by Tribune News Service

J.D. Vance hosts Charlie Kirk show, pledges to honour friend by being a better husband

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The US vice-president hosted The Charlie Kirk Show from his ceremonial office

The US vice-president hosted The Charlie Kirk Show from his ceremonial office