“The fact that we were able to pull off an event of a century, like, it’s just insane. We had over 275,000 people that attended, and stadium overflow, [at] Westgate. Insane, you guys,” says Erika Kirk, less than two weeks after her husband Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The audio from a private Turning Point USA Zoom call led by Kirk was released by conservative commentator Candace Owens.
Highlights
- Erika Kirk celebrated Charlie Kirk’s memorial event 11 days after his assassination, praising staff and merch sales during a private Zoom call.
- Social media criticized Erika’s upbeat tone, comparing it to a business report rather than mourning her late husband’s death.
- Candace Owens released the audio and is investigating the assassination and Erika’s sudden rise to Turning Point USA leadership.
- Numerous conspiracy theories have emerged about Erika Kirk, including false claims of child trafficking and a secret past marriage.
The call, which took place 12 days after Kirk was killed, was intended to address staff following a massive public memorial event. But Owens scrutinized the tone of the call as being too upbeat and celebratory, given the timing.
Candace Owens has released a TPUSA call in which Erika Kirk takes stock of her husband’s memorial event
Image credits: Caylo Seals/Getty Images
In the recording, Erika Kirk praises staff for pulling off what she calls “an event of a century,” citing attendance numbers and merchandise sales.
“I think we’re at like over 200,000 for merch sales… it just keeps bumping up like crazy,” Kirk said, thanking employees, many of whom worked extreme hours in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s death.
“The staff that worked on the memorial, they had 20-hour days for a week during the time of us grieving the loss of my husband,” Kirk says, adding, “I know several staff that didn’t even sleep.”
Kirk repeatedly emphasizes the need to move forward at full speed. “Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action will steam ahead,” she tells employees. “Charlie would want us to get back to work.”
At another point, she jokes about her late husband watching from heaven.
Image credits: Charlie Kirk/Instagram
“Charlie in heaven is like, ‘You guys thought you had a busy schedule, then just you wait,’” she says, adding that he is “doing some awesome things with Jesus in heaven right now.”
She continues listing more statistics, such as 300,000 new donors, 50,000-plus hat orders, and 20,000 registrations for TPUSA’s annual AmericaFest convention.
Social media users reacted strongly to the audio. “She sounds like a district manager talking about holiday sales goals,” said one user on Instagram, while another asked, “Event of the century? Have you ever heard somebody talk about their husbands [sic] memorial service like this?”
Social media users criticized Erika Kirk for focusing on TPUSA statistics at her husband’s memorial
Image credits: godfatherofchaos/Instagram
A third commented, “Can’t wait for the documentary to come out exposing Erik Kirk.”
One user shared their experience after their husband passed away. “My husband died unexpectedly and I couldn’t hardly talk to people. I just kept playing it over and over and I was definitely not laughing at any point for a few months,” they wrote.
Image credits: godfatherofchaos/Instagram
One person joked, “Didn't know excitement was a stage of grief,” while another said, “I have no words. This is not normal.”
Employees who were on the Zoom call with Erika reportedly told Owens they felt uncomfortable taking time off to grieve Charlie Kirk's death because Erika insisted Charlie would want them to work.
Owens has launched her own investigation into both Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the circumstances surrounding Erika Kirk’s sudden rise to leadership at Turning Point USA.
She scrutinized the public timeline following the assassination, including a private donor dinner where attendees were reportedly “in joyous spirits,” as well as an in-person New York Times interview Erika Kirk gave just eight days after her husband’s death.
Image credits: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Beyond the audio itself, a wave of online conspiracy theories has emerged around Erika Kirk, especially given her sudden rise to fame after modeling the persona of the perfect stay-at-home wife.
She has been scrutinized online, given her seemingly chirpy personality and multiple public appearances in the wake of Kirk’s death.
For instance, social media users were weirded out by Erika Kirk’s entry at the memorial, with her walking onto a red-carpeted stage complete with pyrotechnics and music.
Many criticized her fireworks entry at Charlie Kirk’s memorial
Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images
She moved around the stage, looked at the crowd, and wiped her tears.
Many compared it to a WWE event and even The Hunger Games.
Since then, a meme trend has gone viral, with social media users parodying Erika Kirk’s entrance, often exaggerating her entrance for comedic effect.
Memes often depict Erika dancing, skipping, or performing over-the-top gestures as she walks onstage. They’re usually captioned: “Everybody grieves differently. Meanwhile, Erika Kirk.”
One conspiracy theory relates to Kirk’s work on a Romanian charity project. The allegation is that Kirk was banned from Romania because her Evangelical group was accused of trafficking children out of Romanian villages, with some alleging sex-trafficking.
Another theory references alleged Mossad connections, assertions for which no evidence has been publicly substantiated. Owens has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the theory that Charlie Kirk was murdered by Israelis.
A third theory says Erika Kirk had a secret marriage before she tied the knot with Charlie Kirk, to a man named Derek Chelsvig. However, there are no official records of this marriage.
Owens has taken up the role of chief conspiracy theorist when it comes to Kirk’s death. In the weeks after his assassination, Owens claimed that the French and Israeli governments gained from Charlie’s death, and that they may be coming after her, too.
Back in October, she vowed to defy a gag order that forbade anyone associated with Kirk from speaking to news outlets.
Candace Owens has shared several conspiracy theories in relation to Charlie Kirk’s death
Image credits: Jason Davis/Getty Images
Owens added that Kirk was betrayed “by everyone.”
She has previously compared Erika Kirk to Meghan Markle, a hated figure in right-wing media.
“We are dealing with the subject of Erika Kirk and what transpired immediately following Charlie’s assassination,” Owens said.
“This is going to be read as Meghan Markle syndrome—where you want privacy when you want it, but you want publicity whenever you want it. And that just doesn’t work.”
Owens has even claimed that Erika Kirk was being followed by Egyptian airplanes for years. Erika denied this theory on CBS, claiming that she and the Egyptian planes had been in the same place at the same time.
She addressed some of these theories during her conversation with Bari Weiss during a CBS Town Hall. “Stop. That’s it,” Kirk said. “That’s all I have to say. Stop.”