Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, is finally addressing the speculation surrounding her embrace with Vice President JD Vance at an event honoring her late husband.
The viral moment happened on Oct. 29 when Vance was a guest at a Turning Point USA event in memory of the group’s slain CEO, who was shot and killed while speaking with students at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Before welcoming Vance to the stage, Erika Kirk, who has since taken over as Turning Point USA’s CEO, told the crowd that “no one will ever replace” her husband, but that she does “see some similarities” between him and the vice president.
When Vance hit the stage, he and Kirk shared a tight embrace in which she rested her hand on the back of Vance’s head while his hands moved down to hold her waist.
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The pair’s hug immediately prompted social media users to analyze their body language and the nature of their friendship, with many debating whether the embrace was appropriate for the widow and the U.S. vice president.
Over the weekend, Erika Kirk addressed the gossip with political commentator Megyn Kelly at a live event for the “Megyn Kelly Show” in Glendale, Arizona, on Nov. 22.
After Kelly mentioned that people “went to the weirdest places” about Kirk’s hug with Vance, Kirk told the crowd that her “love language is touch” and recalled what led to the interaction.
“So I will give you a play-by-play … They just played the emotional video. I’m walking over, [JD] is walking over. I’m starting to cry,” Kirk explained.
“He says, ‘[Charlie] is so proud of you.’ And I say, ‘God bless you,’ and I touch the back of his head,” she continued. “Anyone whom I have hugged, that I have touched the back of your head when I hug you, I always say, ‘God bless you.’”
If anyone “wants to take that out of context,” they can “go right ahead,” Kirk concluded.
“They were acting like you touched the back of his ass,” Kelly joked.
Kirk agreed, adding, “I feel like I wouldn’t get as much hate if I did that.”
The vice president has not yet publicly addressed his viral hug with Erika Kirk, and the White House didn’t immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, a representative for the vice president’s wife, Usha Vance, addressed photographs of the second lady in which she was pictured without her wedding ring in North Carolina on Wednesday.
“[She is] a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths and forgets her ring sometimes,” the rep told People on Saturday.
