'Extraordinary': Ex-Obama aide shares Kirk’s peace offering sent day before his killing

A former advisor to Barack Obama's White House shared what one anchor called an "extraordinary" message from the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk that he only saw after Kirk's killing in Utah.

Van Jones joined Anderson Cooper on "Anderson Cooper 360" late Friday to praise Kirk's after the two feuded on social media over the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death last month while riding a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"The suspect is a Black man, and Charlie Kirk and Van got into a public sparring match online," noted Cooper. "Kirk claimed the murder happened because she was white. Van denounced that as completely unfounded. Kirk then sent out what Van calls a firehose of tweets challenging his argument, which Van says sparked death threats against him."

But it was what happened next that led Jones to praise Kirk, who was shot dead last week. Kirk reached out to Jones in a direct message on X.

"Hey Van, I mean it. I'd love to have you on my show to have a respectful conversation about crime and race. I would be a gentleman, as I know you would be as well. We can disagree about the issues agreeably," Kirk said.

The message was sent Sept. 9 — a day before he was shot and killed. Jones saw the message the following day after the shooting.

"I mean, this is extraordinary. So this was received the day before he was killed?" asked Cooper.

"Yeah. Look, I mean, we were beefing. We were going at it online, on air. And then after he died, after he was murdered, my team called and said, 'Van, he was trying to reach you, man.'" said Jones.

Jones said he was sitting on the message, which called for being "gentlemen together" and disagreeing "agreeably."

"So I'm sitting on this, and I'm watching the whole country talk about civil war, censorship, justifying murder about this guy? This guy is reaching out to his mortal enemy, saying we need to be gentlemen, sit down together and disagree agreeably. And the next day, he's killed," said Jones.

Jones said after thinking it over, he said they'd attend a memorial weekend for Kirk.

"We disagreed — everybody knows we were not friends, ok? At all. But you praise the good when it's time to memorialize somebody. And what he did — nd I didn't even know it — was good. He was not for censorship. He was not for civil war. He was not for violence. He was for dialogue. Open debate and dialogue. Even with me. Even with me," said Jones.

Jones said that while he wouldn't have appeared on Kirk's show, he might've invited Kirk onto Cooper's show, called him and started the process of debate.

"I wanted to beat Charlie Kirk in a debate. I didn’t want somebody to shoot him. That’s how we do it in America," said Jones.