JD Vance heads to Utah to pay respect to Charlie Kirk’s family after assassination

According to Daily Mail reporter Katelyn Caralle and other reports, Vance is set to travel on Utah on Thursday after Kirk was shot by an assassin during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

"Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha will visit Salt Lake City, Utah today to pay respects to Charlie Kirk’s family. They will no longer travel to New York City to visit Ground Zero for the 9/11 service, according to a source familiar with the change in plans," Caralle reported.

Kirk was shot in the neck on Wednesday during his "Prove Me Wrong" tour at UVU campus. It was the first stop of the fall tour. After being rushed to the hospital, Kirk passed away.

President Donald Trump announced the death on Truth Social. The two men were friends and Kirk had worked hard campaigning for him. Two people of interest were arrested after the shooting, but a manhunt for the shooter remains ongoing as of Thursday morning.

Vance said after that Kirk's events, like the one being held at UVU, was "one of the few places with open and honest dialogue between left and right. He would answer any question and talk to everyone."

Vance posted after his death was announced, in a tribute to Kirk, "A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.

"Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind. Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives. When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right--as he usually was--he was generous. With Charlie, the attitude was never, 'I told you so.' But: 'welcome.'"

"Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for senate in early 2021. I was interested but skeptical there was a pathway. We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr. 'Like his dad, he's misunderstood. He's extremely smart, and very much on our wavelength.' Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too."

"Long before I ever committed (even in my mind) to running, Charlie had me speak to his donors at a TPUSA event. He walked me around the room and introduced me. He gave me honest feedback on my remarks. He had no reason to do this, no expectation that I'd go anywhere. I was polling, at that point, well below 5 percent. He did it because we were friends, and because he was a good man," Vance added, then recounting how Kirk had advocated for him as he was chosen as Trump's running mate.

"Charlie genuinely believed in and loved Jesus Christ. He had a profound faith. We used to argue about Catholicism and Protestantism and who was right about minor doctrinal questions. Because he loved God, he wanted to understand him. Someone else pointed out that Charlie died doing what he loved: discussing ideas. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions. If it was a friendly crowd, and a progressive asked a question to jeers from the audience, he'd encourage his fans to calm down and let everyone speak. He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas."

He concluded, saying, "I was in a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats started lighting up with people telling Charlie they were praying for him. And that's how I learned the news that my friend had been shot. I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in. God didn't answer those prayers, and that's OK. He had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I'll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends, and the country he loved so dearly. You ran a good race, my friend."