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Riley Gaines had great praise for Erika Kirk on Sunday as she spoke in front of thousands of mourners during a memory of her husband, Charlie Kirk, in Arizona.
Erika Kirk stepped up to the podium at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale – home to NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. She showed tremendous courage and grace as she talked about her husband who was murdered during an event at Utah Valley University almost two weeks ago.
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Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, arrives on stage to speak under the public memory of political activist Charlie Kirk at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on September 21, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
“Erika Kirk’s remarks … I have no words,” wrote the women’s sports activist on X. “This is exactly what America needed to hear. Filled with love, strength, compassion, honesty and forgiveness. This is the most powerful speech I’ve ever heard.”
Kirk told the audience that she would forgive her husband’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, and said the conservative influencer’s mission reached young men in search of direction.
“Charlie wanted passionately to reach and save the lost boys in the West. The young men who feel they have no direction, no purpose, no faith and no reason to live. The men are wasting their lives on distractions and men consumer with resentment, anger and hate,” she said. “Charlie would help them. He wanted them to have a home with Turning Point USA. And when he went on to campus, he was looking to show them a better path and a better life. It was right there to take. He would show them it.
Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, wipes away tears on stage during a memorial for killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at the State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona, on September 21, 2025. (Reuters/Daniel Cole)
Browns Pay paddling Charlie Kirk while Memorial Services takes place in Arizona
“My husband, Charlie. He wanted to save. Young men, like the one who took his life. The young man. The young man on the cross. Our Savior said it. Dad. Forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing,” she continued. “You, that man. The young man. I forgive him. I access him because that was what Christ did. And that’s what Charlie would do. The answer to hatred is not hatred. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who pursue us.”
Gaines paid tribute to her courage.
“Only God can give a sad widow’s heart, serenity and strength to forgive her husband’s assassin just 11 days after he shot him,” Outkick “Gaines for the Girls” host. “Only God.”
Memorial Service contained several speakers as more than 70,000 people were available.
