Vice President J.D. Vance paid tribute to his close friend Charlie Kirk on Sunday, saying the conservative influencer changed history and helped President Trump get elected last year.
“He transformed the face of conservatism in our own time, and in doing so, he changed the course of American history to rising generations across the country,” Mr. Vance said at Mr. Kirk’s funeral. “Charlie exemplified kindness, courage and a commitment to open debate.”
Mr. Vance noted the number of Trump administration Cabinet officials who attended the funeral, with Mr. Trump giving the final remarks of the day.
“Now our whole administration is here, but not because we love Charlie as a friend, even though we did, but because we know we wouldn’t be here without him,” the vice president said. “Charlie built an organization that reshaped the balance of our politics.”
Mr. Vance was the first of the more than a dozen scheduled speakers to speak from behind bulletproof glass at the event.
There was tight security in other ways, with between 500 and 800 Secret Service agents assigned to the event that attracted more than 60,000 people to the stadium that houses the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
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Mr. Kirk was shot Sept. 10 by a sniper while speaking on a college campus in Utah.
Mr. Vance said the conservative icon came to his aid in 2021 when he was running to be the U.S. senator from Ohio and struggling in the polls. He said that spoke volumes about how Mr. Kirk treated people.
“Charlie treated staffers as well as he treated the president of the United States,” Mr. Vance said. “Just a couple of months ago when a White House staffer struggled with the weight of his job and responsibilities of new fatherhood, Charlie stopped what he was doing in the hallways of the West Wing and said a prayer for that staffer, because Charlie believed we were all children of God.”
