WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance says there is “clear evidence” that 23-year-old accused assassin Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk, he shared in an interview with The Daily Wire, but that he is “always going to wonder” who radicalized his friend’s killer.
The vice president shared that he managed to follow parts of Utah hearing for Robinson, though not all of it, and he told The Daily Wire that “the evidence against Robinson is just really, really compelling.” In a wide ranging interview as the hearing concluded on Friday, Vance put a rest to the notion that he believes the viral conspiracy theories about Kirk’s death, stating firmly that Robinson killed his friend.
“Do I think Tyler Robinson pulled the trigger and killed Charlie Kirk? Absolutely,” Vance said. “I think the evidence is clear on that.“
Throughout the past week, prosecutors spent days revealing surveillance footage, forensic evidence, an alleged confession note, and testimony from Robinson’s ex-roommate and transgender lover Lance Twiggs, as well as Robinson’s parents. Vance and Kirk were close friends, and Vance has spoken openly about the role Kirk played in convincing President Donald Trump to choose him as his vice president.
Vance addressed claims in an upcoming book from New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, who report that Vance’s “instincts told him that there was a larger plot behind” Kirk’s murder in the days following Kirk’s death. Swan and Haberman wrote that Vance “went down countless online rabbit holes, becoming so consumed by the videos and the theories that his wife, Usha, told him she was worried about him.”
The vice president emphasized that the aspect of Kirk’s death that will always haunt him is the possibility that other individuals were involved in radicalizing Robinson.
Vice President JD Vance, Usha Vance, and Erika Kirk escort the body of Charlie Kirk on September 11, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
“Do I think that Tyler Robinson is part of a broader network of left wing radicals who have fomented and encouraged violence? Absolutely. Do I know that they communicated with Tyler Robinson before the shooting? No, I don’t have evidence for that.”
“I’m always going to wonder,” Vance said. “I’m always going to wonder what was said and how many contacts he had beforehand. By the way, it doesn’t mean that [Robinson’s] any less guilty. But do I wonder if there are other people who are more directly involved in Charlie’s murder? Absolutely, because I don’t think that it’s possible for a young man to get radicalized like that without somebody encouraging him, whether informally or formally.”
“I think there are a lot of people with blood on their hands in the case of Charlie Kirk, but of course, the person most directly who has blood on their hands is Tyler Robinson,” he concluded.
“The truth is that Charlie is dead because a bunch of left-wing radicals have preached a message that it’s okay to kill people you disagree with, and unfortunately, for my friend and and importantly for his family, there’s at least one guy in Utah who took that message to heart and and and murdered a young innocent father,” Vance said. “The worst part about all of this is not my my personal grief, as much as that’s very real, and the country’s loss, but the fact that I know that Erika and two little kids are going to grow up without their husband and father.”
Vance says his hope is that what transpired last September causes leftists to reconsider the violent rhetoric that they too often unleash against political opponents.
“If I was on the left, whatever the ideas that I had about politics and policy, if I saw that the result of some of the violence that I pushed is the death of Charlie Kirk, I would think twice about what I said and what beliefs led me to advocate for violence against people,” he added. “Because way too many leftists have advocated for violence for too long in our country, and it’s had real consequences.”
Donald Trump Jr., then Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Charlie Kirk during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
During the court proceedings this week, the prosecution played an interview with Robinson’s ex-roommate and lover Lance Twiggs, showing some of their text exchanges about the murder. Twiggs revealed to the court that Robinson cried at their apartment after he shot and killed Kirk and said he wished “he hadn’t done it.”
Vance said he had seen this report, calling it “very compelling evidence for a court of law.”
He sighed as he added: “In all Christians, if we’re being honest for us, there is a thirst for justice and a thirst for vengeance. And you know what God encourages to do is to care about justice and not vengeance. And so, if I’m being honest, my mind wishes for justice and hopes that Tyler Robinson is able to find forgiveness and find mercy. But I don’t feel that, and I don’t particularly care about that person or what happens to him.”
Reflecting on his own grief after the death of his friend, Vance said he remains as “heartbroken.”
“I think selfishly, I was thinking about what it would mean for for us, for the movement, and then you know, non-selfishly, I was thinking about what it would mean for Erika and the kids,” he said. “And you know, Charlie was one of those guys who was not just a friend, he was sort of a confidant. He was a guy that I could rely on. He was a guy that I could confide in. And there aren’t that many people when you’re the vice president of the United States.”
“It was a very, very big loss to me,” he shared.
Vance also repeatedly returned to the impact that Kirk’s death has on his family, his wife Erika, and his two children.
“I think about this a lot as a young father, and this is probably the thought that I’ve had the most consistently since Charlie’s death: thank God, my kids are at an age where, if God forbid, something happened to me, they would they would have memories of me, and Charlie’s kids are at that age where, especially for his youngest child, but even for his oldest child, you just worry that a young father who poured his heart and soul into that family, you worry that those kids won’t have any memory of them, and I think that is the greatest tragedy of all of this.”
“And I know it’s something Erika cares a lot about,” added Vance. “It’s certainly something I’ve thought a lot about over the last year, but I think we have to take some some, as Lincoln would say, some measure of devotion to that, that his kids should know at the very least who he was, that that they were beloved, and that their dad gave his life fighting for the very best principles of the country that he loved.”
