Vice President JD Vance stood before a crowd of young conservatives at the University of Georgia on Tuesday, but the person who was supposed to be beside him was nowhere to be found.
Erika Kirk, the CEO of Turning Point USA, did not attend the event after receiving what those close to her described as serious threats against her safety.
Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet took the stage in her place, wasting no time in explaining the situation to the crowd gathered for the nonprofit’s tour designed to fire up young conservative voters ahead of the midterm elections.
“I’m going to address it right at the front, Mr. Vice President, I’m on stage here instead of our friend Erika Kirk because unfortunately she has received some very serious threats in her direction,” Kolvet told the audience.
“It’s a terrible reflection on the state of reality and the state of the country,” he added.
Vance confirmed that Kirk had personally contacted him before the event to discuss the threats, and the situation nearly derailed the rally entirely.
“I love Erika, and I know that she did get some threats,” Vance said. “About two hours ago… 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 consulted with the Secret Service before ultimately deciding to move forward with the event. No details about the specific nature of the threats have been publicly disclosed. The Daily Mail reached out to the White House seeking comment.
Kirk’s rise to the top of Turning Point USA came under devastating circumstances. Her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on September 10 at Utah Valley University while engaging with students on campus. Erika stepped into the CEO role in the immediate aftermath of his death.
Since assuming leadership, she has drawn both fierce loyalty and sharp criticism from within conservative circles. Many on the right have rallied behind her, moved by the public and violent nature of her husband’s killing. Others have accused her of grieving in a way they consider staged or calculated.
Candace Owens has emerged as one of Kirk’s most outspoken critics, going so far as to suggest that Kirk’s decision to skip Tuesday’s event was “PR horses***.”
Owens has also promoted the claim that Kirk intentionally removed a wedding photo of herself and Charlie from her on-air backdrop.
Turning Point USA pushed back on that claim directly, telling Newsweek that Kirk had moved the photo to a lower shelf after her daughter asked to hold and look at it. “It’s still on the studio shelf, just lower down where her daughter can look at it whenever she’s in there with her mom,” a spokesperson said.
Owens has separately alleged that Turning Point USA manipulated the view count on its alternate Super Bowl halftime broadcast to make it appear more popular than it actually was, particularly in comparison to Bad Bunny’s widely watched performance.
Vance did not address those specific allegations Tuesday, but he forcefully rejected the broader narrative that Kirk has been anything less than a grieving widow.
“I was holding her hand, my wife was hugging her while we loaded Charlie’s body onto Air Force Two and said the Lord’s Prayer,” Vance said. “The people telling you that Erika wasn’t grieving her husband are full of s***.”
Vance also framed Kirk’s leadership of the organization as a mission rooted in honoring her late husband, describing her work as “trying to make sure that Charlie’s legacy doesn’t die.”
The evening did not stay focused on Kirk for long. As Vance fielded questions from Kolvet on foreign policy — including a defense of President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran — a man in the audience began heckling.
The disruption came during a segment touching on Trump’s ongoing public dispute with Pope Leo. The heckler shouted that Jesus does not support genocide.
Vance agreed with the statement itself. “I agree. Jesus Christ certainly does not support genocide, whoever yelled that out from the dark… I think that’s pretty easy,” he said.
The man then directed his comments toward Gaza, claiming Israel is killing children there. The crowd booed him almost instantly.
Vance redirected blame toward the previous administration, pointing to the Gaza ceasefire he and Trump brokered that went into effect on October 10, 2025.
“If you want, sir, to complain about what happened in Gaza, why don’t you complain about Joe Biden and the last administration. We’re the administration that solved that problem,” he said.
Israel has continued military operations in Gaza in the months following the ceasefire. The Israel Defense Forces recently killed an Al Jazeera journalist, identifying him as a Hamas operative.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the strike. Israel’s campaign in Gaza began after Hamas killed roughly 1,200 Israeli civilians and seized dozens of hostages in its October 7, 2023 attack.
