Learn English with J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States of America, at the memorial service for former Vice President Charlie Kirk in Phoenix, Arizona. Vice President Joe Biden delivers the eulogies at the service.
00:01:29.000I can't help but think that they tried to silence my friend Charlie Kirk.
00:01:36.000They tried to silence our dear friend Charlie Kirk.
00:01:40.000And today, tonight, we speak with Charlie and for Charlie louder than ever.
00:01:55.000The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today.
00:02:02.000And instead, my friends, we have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk and of his Lord Jesus Christ.
00:02:17.000We gather here in this stadium in the hot Arizona sun shielded in a great shining city our fathers raised out of the desert.
00:02:30.000And from this desert, Charlie Kirk built a movement.
00:02:36.000He transformed the face of conservatism in our own time.
00:02:40.000And in doing so, he changed the course of American history.
00:02:45.000To rising generations across this country, Charlie exemplified kindness, courage, and a commitment to open debate.
00:02:56.000And he was a great debater, and we loved him for it.
00:02:59.000But Charlie loved debate not because he excelled at it, but because it was the vehicle for bringing the light of truth to dark places.
00:03:08.000And Charlie Kirk brought many truths in his life.
00:03:17.000Charlie brought the truth that young people deserve to stake in the future and that they deserve to have a voice.
00:03:26.000He brought the truth that marriage and family were the highest callings, far more important than any job or educational credential.
00:03:35.000He brought the truth that our nation would fade unless it brought order to its neighborhoods and prosperity to its people.
00:03:47.000He brought the truth that life was precious and we must fight to protect it at all stages and at all times.
00:04:02.000But most of all, Charlie brought the truth that Jesus Christ was the King of Kings and that all truth flowed from this first and most important one.
00:04:20.000But Charlie, he did so much more than tell the truth.
00:04:38.000He had a beautiful wife, two beloved children, and a loving and godly home.
00:04:43.000In this, he showed us the importance of family.
00:04:47.000He lived three decades he had on this earth with a sense of Christian virtue that would make any man, any person proud.
00:04:55.000And in this, he showed the importance of following God.
00:04:59.000He was a kind-hearted man, a hard-working person, and any parent would be proud to have him as a son.
00:05:07.000In this, he showed the virtue of industriousness.
00:05:11.000He was present and loving as any child would hope of his or her father.
00:05:17.000And in this, he showed the importance of strong Christian fatherhood.
00:05:29.000He was fearless and he was bold as any follower would hope would be true of a leader.
00:05:37.000And in this, he showed all of us how to carry on after his death.
00:05:42.000You know, Charlie Kirk, he loved history.
00:05:44.000He devoured the ideas that formed the foundation of our civilization.
00:05:50.000He stood for a tradition that Socrates established 2,500 years ago to question, to search, and to teach.
00:06:01.000He was Athens and Jerusalem, the city of reason and the city of God in one person.
00:06:08.000But if he loved those places, they were not his home.
00:06:13.000America was his home, and he was willing to die for it.
00:06:25.000You know, Charlie, he loved this country with a contagious intensity.
00:06:30.000Anybody who talked to him knew it and felt it.
00:06:33.000He knew that America was a beautiful place and we had these incredible ideas, but he also knew that our country was a covenant between the generations past, present, and future.
00:06:45.000He believed this country's best days were not behind us, but ahead of us.
00:06:50.000But he knew those better days would have to be earned.
00:06:55.000We would have to sacrifice and work and tell the truth.
00:06:59.000He knew that America wouldn't be saved just by pulling together seminars or talking about the right kind of books in front of the right kind of people.
00:07:07.000The movement which he created demanded more.
00:07:16.000It demanded building and it demanded leaders.
00:07:18.000And my friends and Charlie Kirk, we found a great American leader.
00:07:31.000Now, our whole administration is here, but not just because we love Charlie as a friend, even though we did, but because we know we wouldn't be here without him.
00:07:41.000Charlie built an organization that reshaped the balance of our politics.
00:07:50.000Turning point brought millions of young people into conversation with one another, brought millions of people into advocacy.
00:07:59.000Not just that we talk about saving our country, but that we actually go and do it and we do it together.
00:08:14.000But even as Charlie built on a grand scale, his greatness was never only in his ambition.
00:08:21.000It was measured in the everyday moments as well, in the way that he treated ordinary people each and every single day.
00:08:30.000You know, you learn a lot about someone by how they treat others when the cameras aren't on.
00:08:37.000Charlie treated staffers as well as he treated the President of the United States.
00:08:43.000When I was just a guy polling at nothing in my Senate race back in 2021, Charlie helped me, not because I was a future vice president, but because I was a dear friend.
00:08:55.000I saw just a couple of months ago when a White House staffer struggled with the weight of his job and the responsibilities of new fatherhood.
00:09:04.000Charlie stopped what he was doing in the hallways of the West Wing and said a prayer for that staffer.
00:09:11.000Because Charlie believed that we were all children of God, he treated everyone with grace.
00:09:18.000And that is perhaps the enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk.
00:09:22.000You know, I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public as much as I loved the Lord and as much as it was an important part of my life.
00:09:37.000I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.
00:10:05.000And that is an undeniable legacy of the great Charlie Kirk.
00:10:12.000And because he loved God, he wanted to understand God's creation and the men and women made in his image.
00:10:21.000Now much has been said over the last week about Charlie's ability to approach any topic, any person in good faith, an achievement that was only possible because Charlie knew that we were all children of God.
00:10:38.000He knew deep down the truth of Scripture.
00:10:41.000And from that confidence, everything else flowed.
00:10:44.000That unshakable belief in the gospel led him to see differences in opinion, not as battlefields to conquer, but as way stations in the pursuit of truth.
00:10:57.000He knew it was right to love others, your neighbor, your interlocutor, your enemy.
00:11:05.000But he also understood his duty to say what is right and what is wrong, to distinguish what is false from what is true.
00:11:24.000Charlie was slain, doing what he loved, telling the truth, proclaiming his faith, building out a dream.
00:11:33.000And now he's gone, and our hearts feel so empty because he's been taken from us.
00:11:39.000He's been taken from his parents and from his sister.
00:11:43.000He has been taken from our darling Erica and their beautiful children.
00:11:48.000And Erica, I know I speak for this entire auditorium when I say that we love you and we will never stop standing by your side, just as Charlie did.
00:12:09.000He was taken from us by those who despise the virtues that actually made our civilization great to begin with.
00:12:21.000Dialogue, truth-seeking, family, and faith.
00:12:27.000In the wake of his death, we have seen some of the very worst parts of humanity.
00:12:38.000We have watched people justify his murder and celebrate his death.
00:12:44.000I know that this makes you angry just as it has made me angry.
00:12:49.000But it is easy in these moments to see only the worst of our fellow man.
00:12:56.000I found myself wishing that I could pick up the phone and talk to my friend and ask him for his advice and his counsel, to ask him how to respond to such hate and the souls from which that hate springs.
00:13:13.000But I can't call my friend because he was murdered for speaking the truth.
00:13:18.000I can only guess at what he might say and what he would encourage me to do.
00:13:27.000I think he would encourage me to be honest that evil still walks among us.
00:13:33.000Not to ignore it for the sake of a fake kumbaya moment, but to address it head on and honestly as the sickness that it is.
00:13:52.000But I also think he would encourage me, he would encourage all of us to focus on the good.
00:13:59.000He would encourage us to remember that for every hateful voice celebrating his murder, there are a thousand people mourning it and fighting for his legacy every single day.
00:16:20.000Charlie took heart, and now we must do the same.
00:16:27.000I've seen so many of you say, so many on social media talk about for Charlie, we must do this for Charlie.
00:16:35.000For Charlie, we will speak the truth every single day.
00:16:47.000For Charlie, we will rebuild this United States of America to greatness.
00:16:58.000For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never cower, and we will never falter, even when staring down the barrel of a gun.
00:17:14.000For Charlie, we will remember that it is better to stand on our feet defending the United States of America and defending the truth than it is to die on our knees.
00:17:32.000My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America and he is a martyr for the Christian faith.
00:17:41.000May our Heavenly Father give us the courage to live as Charlie lived.