Erika Kirk skips Turning Point USA event over 'safety concerns' after getting threats

Erika Kirk, the widow of slain activist Charlie Kirk, withdrew from a Turning Point USA event on Tuesday (April 14) after receiving threats to her life, according to US Vice President JD Vance. “I know that she did get some threats,” Vance told students at the University of Georgia in Athens. “I was a little worried that we were going to have to cancel the event because Erika was not going to come, and she was very worried about it.”

Vance said he consulted the Secret Service and expressed no concern for his own safety. However, he did not share specific details about the threats made against Erika Kirk, who serves as CEO of Turning Point USA. “I was so looking forward to tonight’s event at the [University of Georgia] with our Vice President [JD Vance], but after all our family has been through, I take my security team’s recommendations extremely seriously,” Kirk wrote on X.

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The vice president added that the threats had left Kirk ‘worried’ and criticized those attacking her following her husband’s death, saying she has been targeted by conspiracy theories in some right-wing circles. “Everybody is attacking her over everything, and they’re lying about her, and it’s one of the most disgraceful things that I’ve ever seen in public life,” JD Vance said.

Meanwhile, right-wing commentator Candace Owens dismissed Kirk’s claims, suggesting an alternative reason for her withdrawal. “This is exhausting,” she wrote on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). “You pulled out because of bad ticket sales...Were there actually a viable threat, the Vice President would not have continued the event.”