President Donald Trump offered a glimmer of hope Thursday for a nation in shock from the killing of Turning Point USA co-founder and CEO Charlie Kirk.
Joe Kernen, co-host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said he talked to Trump by phone and that the president was “devastated” by Kirk’s murder.
“He’s devastated about Charlie Kirk and said that what a great individual [he was],” Kernen said. “And he said he helped him greatly in the last election and thinks that Charlie Kirk could have been president someday.
“Then he went on to say, the country will heal. He’s focused on what he has been focused on, and he says, I’m focused on winning. If the country wins and if I do everything I can to help the country win, that we’re all going to be able to come together again.”
Kirk, 31, a prominent Trump ally, was shot during a forum with students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. A video from the event showed Kirk bleeding heavily from an apparent gunshot wound to his neck. He died later that day at a hospital.
The search for his killer is ongoing. The FBI has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the individual responsible for Kirk’s murder.
Trump on Wednesday ordered American flags to be lowered to half-staff until sunset on Sunday in Kirk’s honor. Trump also said Thursday he would award Kirk posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.
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