Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance will travel to Salt Lake City on Thursday to pay tribute to Charlie Kirk’s family.
The second family was scheduled to hold a ceremony in New York City to mark the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, but will fly to Utah, sources said.
Mr Kirk was killed Wednesday while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem.
Mr. Vance and Mr. Kirk are friends, and the vice president said the young activist praised him on Twitter after appearing on Tucker Carlson’s Fox Show in 2017.
“It was Charlie Kirk, the moment of kindness began the friendship that lasted to this day,” Mr Vance wrote in a long eulogy later Wednesday.
“Charlie Kirk is a real friend. What can you say and know that this will always be with him. I have had several group chats with Charlie and the people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, destroying each other, destroying each other, mourning each other.
The vice president said Mr Kirk introduced him to Donald Trump Jr., one of the first people he considered calling when he ran for the Senate in early 2021. Mr Kirk led him to speak with donors of his conservative organization Turning Point USA and gave him feedback on his comments.
“When I became the vice president nominee (thing Charlie advocated both public and private), Charlie was there for me. Call and text, check our family, provide guidance and prayer,” he wrote.
