Tuesday was Charlie Kirk’s 32nd birthday. It was also the day he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He was not there physically to celebrate. That’s was left to his widow to accept the honor on his behalf and remember him as a “free man” — the literal meaning of his name, Charlie, Fox News reported.
Kirk spoke at the ceremony in the White House Rose Garden about her husband and his legacy.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10 during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University’s campus. The award, given by President Donald Trump, is the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for honoring my husband in such a profound way,” Erika Kirk started her speech. “Charlie always admired your commitment to freedom.”
She also thanked first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance as well as friends and family “watching from all around the world.
She also noted the Turning Point USA staff and chapters nationwide.
“You are the heartbeat of this future and of this movement,” she said. “Everything Charlie built lives through you.”
She also spoke of the Presidential Medal of Freedom itself.
“The very existence of the Presidential Medal of Freedom reminds us that the national interest of the United States has always been freedom,” she said.
“Our founders etched it into the preamble of our Constitution, and those words are not relics on parchment. They are a living covenant. The blessings of liberty are not man’s invention. They are God’s endowment,” she added.
She said freedom was important to her husband, who wrote about it often.
“He believed that liberty was both a right and a responsibility. And he used to say that freedom is the ability to do what is right without fear. And that’s how he lived,” Erika Kirk said.
“His name, Charles, literally means ‘free man.’ And that’s exactly who my husband was,” she added. “From the time I met him, sitting across from him being interviewed about politics, philosophy and theology, I saw the fire in his soul. There was this divine restlessness within him that came from knowing God placed him on this earth to protect something very sacred. He never stopped fighting for people to experience freedom.”
Erika said her husband would say that “without God, freedom becomes chaos” and liberty survives “when anchored to truth.”
He would tell an audience, “The opposite of liberty isn’t law. It’s captivity. And the freest people in the world are those whose hearts belong to Christ,” she said.
She also spoke of Turning Point USA, the organization her husband co-founded.
“While he was building an organization, he was also building a movement: one that called people back to God, back to truth, and a movement that was filled with courage,” Erika Kirk said.
She also spoke of her husband enjoying “life’s simplest pleasures: quiet walks, shelves full of books and Saturday mornings in the sun with decaf coffee and his phone turned off for the Sabbath. His birthday tradition, she recalled, was mint chocolate chip ice cream, enjoyed only on July 4 and his birthday,” the outlet reported.”
“Last year, his one birthday wish was to see the Oregon Ducks play Ohio State — and they won,” she said. “Mr. President, I can say with confidence that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have.”
She ended her speech by saying, “To live free is the greatest gift, but to die free is the greatest victory. Happy birthday, Charlie. Happy freedom day.”
