In the weeks since Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, his widow, Erika Kirk, has become CEO of the influential organization that Charlie left behind. In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday night, Erika shared the role that faith has played in her life and Charlie’s and how she intends to lead TPUSA in carrying on her late husband’s legacy. Here are some of the top highlights.

Why Erika Forgave Her Husband’s Killer

During a high-profile memorial ceremony for Charlie in September, Erika shocked viewers when she chose to forgive Tyler Robinson, the young man charged with murdering Charlie. “I remember going over the speech the night before, and there was a portion in there that I remember putting about how Charlie was trying to save the Lost Boys of the West. He was trying to save the exact type of individual who murdered him,” Erika recalled. “When I re-read that the night before, I thought, it just was weighing on my heart: forgive him. A lot of people in this world think that forgiveness is a weakness, or that when you forgive, you forget. And it’s the exact opposite, it’s a form of freedom.”

“The enemy stole my husband. And if I didn’t forgive — it’s more so for me than this man — because the enemy would have my heart. And I knew that every day the Lord forgives me for things, so He forgives everybody else for things small or big,” Erika shared. “And what an example of forgiveness. And it’s not easy. It’s not easy. It never is easy. But it’s freeing, it’s so freeing. And again, it’s not a weakness, but it’s a way for me to be able to say, ‘You’ll never get me. You’ll never get me.’”

Erika also shared that she will not weigh in on prosecutors’ decision whether or not to seek the death penalty for Charlie’s assassin. “I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger when I stand before the Lord. I want the government to decide what’s biblical, so justice will ultimately be served,” she said. She also shared that she believes that Charlie would not have chosen a different fate had God allowed him the choice. “He’s in heaven. And he sees everything, full picture. And I truly believe that if the Lord — which, this does not happen — but if the Lord gave him an option to return back to earth, and if the Lord said, ‘This is what your death is going to be the catalyst for, do you want to go back and exchange it?’ He’d say no.”

‘What Are They Going to Threaten Me With?’

Charlie’s death shocked many conservatives, as did the violent, celebratory rhetoric with which his death was met by the Left, but Erika and Charlie’s friends, including figures like Vice President J.D. Vance, have responded with courage. Fox News personality Jesse Watters asked Erika, “Do you feel safe?” She replied, “I do. What are they going to threaten me with? Going to Heaven sooner to be with my husband?” Erika added, “I don’t say that to be reckless. I do not say that because I’m out in the streets like, ‘Here I am. Come find me.’” Instead, she explained, “It’s a fearlessness that’s rooted in the understanding that I will have my day and my time, whenever that is, when the Lord knows that I’ve completed my mission, and I’m not afraid.” Erika continued, “Charlie wasn’t afraid either. We never lived in fear. If we did, we wouldn’t get anything done. And I can’t help run alongside this mission of Turning Point USA and raise my babies with fear. I can’t, that’s not a life to live for anybody.”

Discipline Is the Key to Self-Mastery

Erika shared many qualities and traits that she admired about her late husband, but one that she singled out as particularly crucial was Charlie’s sense of discipline and self-mastery. “The way he operated his life, he wasn’t going to waste time, he wasn’t going to waste the one life that the Lord has blessed him with,” Erika said of Charlie. “That’s something that was so powerful about Charlie is that he mastered self-control. He mastered, he would say, ‘Know your nature.’ He mastered that,” she continued. “Yes, he was very hard on himself, I have the journals to prove it — very hard on himself. But he held himself to such a high standard because he wanted the people that were around him to be better. Also, he wasn’t going to be a leader that told people what to do and not do it.”

“You could see how he evolved into this incredible man who — he mastered himself,” Erika repeated, emphasizing that Charlie’s discipline and his Christian faith led him to become more “tranquil” and “patient” as he grew older. “That was a huge testament to his faith because he realized more and more, this is not about Charlie Kirk.”

Children Are a Gift

Charlie’s relationship with his children “was so pure and precious because you see him being on stage in front of thousands of people, commanding the presence, telling them all about Western civilization, telling them all about what’s going on in the world, telling them why they should care,” Erika recalled. “And then you see him come home and just be a dad, go play with them in the pool, love on them, tickle them, play with them.”

“My sweet daughter, she’s starting now to want to say little speeches. So we all are sitting there to listen,” Erika shared of Charlie’s impact on their children. “My daughter is starting to want to put our son to bed at night in his crib. And so — it’s very meticulous of how it’s done, so it’s a little bit of Charlie, of like, making sure that it’s the right rhythm, and we put him in the crib and then I say, ‘Okay, mommy’s leaving,’ and she sits there and I just watch her on this video singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ to him. And that’s the song that Charlie would sing to her.”

Erika also discussed the importance of protecting her children and their privacy, particularly with the high-profile roles Charlie and now she have filled. “We live in a day and age where the internet feels so entitled to everything. ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?’ You know, ‘Explain this, explain that.’ And we live in a world where children don’t even have a childhood anymore,” she lamented. “Why are you posting a photo of your kids so that you can get $50 off a stroller? Like that does not make sense to me. Crazy. If you can’t afford a stroller, buy one you can afford. Like that makes sense to me.”

“But to use your child or a photo of you standing in the bathroom embracing them specifically, and you have 500 copies of that same pose so you can get it right for social media is bizarre to me. And it was to Charlie, too,” Erika continued. “And our babies are not for anyone else’s viewing other than ours and our family. And why would I want AI images of my children out there? Why would I want that? And yeah, we get kidnapping threats. We always have. We get death threats. We always have. You’re just smart about it. Protect what you love. Protect who you love.”

‘Just Asking for Some Graces’

Watters also asked Erika about some of the “conspiracy theories” surrounding her husband’s assassination. “When everything happened, my phone died and became a black hole. I just didn’t turn it on for weeks on end. I’ve intentionally insulated myself, because I need to guard my heart and I need to be there for my kids. I need to be there for Turning Point,” she shared. “And what I’ve realized through all of this is that everyone grieves differently. Everyone is trying to figure out — and I don’t blame them — how does this happen? How does somebody become so radicalized where they can justify this in their own head? We just lost one of the greatest voices of our generation. Why? How? What’s behind it? Like, everyone’s trying to process this, and I respect that.”

“But where my heart is: just asking for some graces for the ones who were there that day. They have to relive that every single day,” Erika lamented. “He didn’t die in a car accident. He didn’t die from cancer. He was assassinated,” she emphasized. “And the difference between this and previous assassinations in this country — there was no social media, there was no AI. I can’t tell you how many fake images are out there of all of this,” she added. “My only request is just please pray and consider and think about whatever you put online, because it’s going to impact his kids in the future. I don’t want my kids to go on the internet one day when they’re older and see things that — it’s just, we’re all trying to process this in our own way, and I appreciate that. But just some grace would be nice.”