U.S Vice President JD Vance participates in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity during the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 9, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Lee/Pool
Vice President JD Vance turned his anger on God over Charlie Kirk's killing, even as President Donald Trump's midterm convention enraged the slain activist's own organization.
Vance made the remarks Thursday during a call into "The Charlie Kirk Show," the program his friend built, one year to the day after Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
The call came as the Republican National Committee opened the second day of its midterm convention in Dallas, an event scheduled on that same anniversary without warning to Charlie Kirk's organization, POLITICO reported.
"I'll be honest with you, man. I'm pissed off that Charlie's dead a year on," Vance said on the program. "Sometimes I find myself talking to God and saying, why the hell did you do this? Why did you leave this big gap for all of us?"
"But I also remember that there is a purpose to it," Vance continued. "And if I'm really following Charlie's example, which I try to do, you've got to have a little bit of humility about the ways in which God is speaking to us in these moments."
"As pissed off as I still am, as heartbroken as I still am, there is very much a purpose to this," he said. "We don't fully understand it, but we've got to have a little humility and try to understand that purpose and live by that purpose as best we can."
Vance described the killing first as a human tragedy, and said he has thought as a young father about what memories Charlie Kirk's two children will keep of theirs.
"I just really wish I could call Charlie and get his advice on this," Vance said. "You slowly, over time, realize that first you pick up the phone and you dial his number, and then you hang up before he answers."
Vance said he and his wife have stayed in close contact over the past year with Erika Kirk and the couple's two children, who he said carry the heaviest share of the loss.
"Obviously, the biggest hole is for Erika and the kids, but all of us, I think, have this hole that we're all trying to fill," Vance said.
POLITICO reported that Turning Point USA received no advance notice of the convention dates and was never consulted about them. Senior leaders at the organization Charlie Kirk founded were "livid" when they first learned the event would land on the anniversary of his killing, two people familiar with the group told the outlet.
Many of the organization's top leaders skipped Dallas altogether, including Andrew Kolvet, Charlie Kirk's longtime right-hand man, who is not using the group's platform to amplify the convention's message, according to POLITICO.
"I personally made the decision," Kolvet told POLITICO. "I want to remember Charlie here, inside his studio and on the campus that he built. I want our influencers and our contributors to come here and be a part of remembering Charlie."
The scheduling also drew criticism from inside the president's own orbit, with a person close to the White House calling the convention a "huge missed opportunity" in remarks to POLITICO.
"This week we should be laser focused on two things: commemorating the run-up to Charlie Kirk's assassination, and hammering the Democrats in the run-up to 9/11 … not a half-a— convention," the person said.
Trump used his keynote address in Dallas on Wednesday to thank Erika Kirk for attending the convention on the eve of the anniversary of her husband's death, The New Republic reported.
"She has put up with something, boy," Trump said. "Oh, boy. What she's had to go through and, the most beautiful family. It's just terrible."
Vance takes the convention stage in primetime as the party's leading contender for 2028, and is set to raise $2 million for the RNC in Dallas on Thursday, POLITICO reported.
Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, NBC News reported.
Tyler Robinson, 23, pleaded not guilty on Sept. 1 after a judge ruled he must stand trial on seven counts, including aggravated murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, NBC News reported. He is due back in court in October.