Charlie Kirk had been receiving death threats in the lead-up to his assassination on Wednesday afternoon, according to a journalist who had recently met with him.
New York Times reporter Robert Draper said he noticed that the conservative influencer had security with him when they dined in Washington D.C. about a “month or two ago.”
“He told me that he had been receiving death threats, but he seemed to just act like that was … that came with the territory,” Draper recalled on The New York Times’ podcast “The Daily.”
Kirk was fatally shot on Wednesday at Utah Valley University during his “America Comeback Tour.“ The conservative influencer and CEO of Turning Point USA leaves behind his wife, Erika Lane Kirk, 36, and their two children.
“I really grieve for her at this moment… and his two young children,” Draper said on the podcast.
In February, Draper published an article titled “How Charlie Kirk Became the Youth Whisperer of the American Right,” profiling the late conservative influencer.
“I found Kirk to be a very remarkable young man,” Draper said on the podcast, telling host Michael Barbaro that they stayed in touch after the profile ran.
“Charlie Kirk was, in a sense, killed in the line of duty or at least duty as he defined it,” Draper said.
The America Comeback Tour, organized by Turning Point USA, featured Kirk discussing and debating conservative politics on college campuses. Utah Valley University was its first stop.
“After Trump himself, no one was more responsible for Republicans winning over young voters in 2024 than Kirk,” Draper said. He added that Kirk once told him privately that he was “one of the three or four people who are most responsible” for Trump’s victory in last year’s presidential election.
Draper recalled that Kirk did not want this comment included in the February profile, but said he felt it was “okay to say it now.”
“In honor of Charlie Kirk, a truly Great American Patriot, I am ordering all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Sunday evening at 6 P.M,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Wednesday, announcing Kirk’s death.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump announced that Kirk will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“There’s no person who can replace Kirk,” Draper said when asked whether the Republican Party and the MAGA movement could fill the void left by the conservative influencer’s death.
The shooter’s identity and motives remain unknown. Still, some right-wing commentators have responded to Kirk’s death by calling for “war.”
“[Kirk was] someone who provided valuable insights on Trump, Trumpism, and the future of the Republican Party,” Draper said, recalling that he had been texting Kirk the day before his death.
“I didn’t hear back, and obviously I won’t hear back,” Draper said.
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