Tens of thousands attend memorial service for conservative leader Charlie Kirk

Ali Rogin:

Good evening. I'm Ali Rogin. John Yang is away. A massive crowd gathered today in Arizona for the memorial service of Charlie Kirk, the conservative political activist who was gunned down 11 days ago. Tens of thousands of people are in attendance inside a football stadium with a heavy security presence.

The memorial, called Building a Legacy, is mixing music and prayer with a call to action. Among the attendees and speakers are President Trump, Vice President Vance and many members of the administration. In the wake of Kirk's assassination, a debate has waged over polarization, political violence and the limits of free speech. Colleagues of Kirk's took different tones in their remarks.

Stacey Sheridan, Turning Point USA:

We will miss your words of wisdom. Your high pitched laugh was kind of awkward and the way your voice would always soften when you spoke to Erika and your children.

Mikey McCoy, Turning Point USA:

Eleven days ago, my friend was martyred for using his voice to engage in peaceful dialogue. Charlie's assassin thought that he could steal and silence his voice by putting a bullet in his neck.

Ali Rogin:

For more on Charlie Kirk's legacy, we turn to Kyle Spencer, a journalist and the author of a book about the conservative youth movement in the U.S. called "Raising Them Right." Kyle, thank you so much for joining us.

This memorial service is ongoing. We still have yet to hear from several major figures, including President Trump and Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika. But what is your impression of the memorial service as it's gone on today?

Kyle Spencer, Author, "Raising Them Right": So thank you so much for having me. I'm very glad to be here. I would say, first of all, that it is always very sad to witness a moment like this. And I think the first thing that struck me was how many people have come out to celebrate Charlie Kirk, and then also to see so many of the people that worked closely with Charlie Kirk's telling personal anecdotes about how good he was to them.

Charlie, I spent a lot of time with Charlie, and the people who worked with him. Everybody who worked with Charlie felt very bonded to him. And you saw that so far. You've seen that in this memorial.

Ali Rogin:

Tell us a little bit more about what he was like. You spent a lot of time with him, going to his events, and tell us about him as a person.

Kyle Spencer:

Charlie was — really a lot of the ways that you're seeing right now, people talk about him. He was incredibly charismatic. He was very driven. He had a very strong sense of the way he wanted this country to go. And he was able to articulate it very succinctly to share that vision with other people and to encourage them to go and share it with more people.

Charlie was very generous to the people who worked for him. He was somebody that they looked up to. And he — every time I ever spent time with him, he was in a good mood. He was interested in talking, willing to talk, always interested in discussing ideas.

I never got — sometimes you get the impression with people that they're sort of one way with you, but they're not really like that in real life. I didn't get that sense with Charlie. I got the sense of the way Charlie was in public was the way Charlie was in private.

Ali Rogin:

And in terms of his position in politics, what was his place in this conservative movement?

Kyle Spencer:

Charlie was a seminal figure. He arrived on the scene in 2012 and shared with donors a vision of the Republican Party that would be more youthful, that would be energetic, exciting, and that would be diverse. And what we know is that a lot of that has happened. And I think that this service is a sign of that. The number of people that are there and that are watching online and who have really accepted and been invigorated by Charlie's vision for the Republican Party.

Ali Rogin:

His widow, Erika, has been tapped to lead Turning Point in his absence. What do you think her role is going to be compared to Charlie's? And is there anybody else in the wings that can take up this mantle?

Kyle Spencer:

So I would like to say that I think that Erika is incredibly driven, as is Charlie, and has grown as a spokesperson over the last couple of years. She has a kind of ministry that she does an online Bible program that she does that has become very popular with young people.

And she and Charlie together were able to share their kind of personal vision about what a family should look like, how a family ought to be, the roles of people in a family. And she was doing that more and more, and I think a really good job of sending that message. So I think she's going to continue to grow and continue to be a representative, particularly for young women.

I'm not so clear whether she will be as effective for young men. The thing about the Turning Point USA movement that Charlie Kirk started and the way that Charlie Kirk worked was to keep bringing people into the movement, whether they were social media stars that helped develop, he helped grow, or whether they were people that just worked inside the movement, inside Turning Point, to make real the dreams and the ideas and the plans that he had.

There are many, many people who are inside that movement who work inside Turning Point USA. It's got a very big staff, a very competent staff, and a very ambitious staff. And I think you see that at the ceremony how many people worked for Charlie. And a lot of those people, I think, are going to be able to step in various different spots, whether there's someone who's going to be able to take the charismatic front facing role of Charlie. I'm not sure.

Ali Rogin:

And do you think very quickly his death is going to shape the conservative movement and the Republican Party in meaningful ways?

Kyle Spencer:

Yes, I think that there it is a very real thing that Charlie Kirk, who was such a brilliant spokesperson for the cause, is no longer with us. However, Hay has his handprints all over the new Republican Party and for those who really believed in what he believed in, that they ought to find that to be give them a lot of solace.

Ali Rogin:

Kyle Spencer, author of "Raising Them Right," thank you so much for your insights.

Kyle Spencer:

Well, thank you so much for having me.