Charlie Kirk: Funeral service attracts thousands to Arizona

US President Donald Trump called his supporter Charlie Kirk a “martyr for the truth and freedom”, after the ultra-right podcaster and activist was killed a week and a half ago in an assassination attempt. On Sunday, the Trump camp recalled the 31-year-old Kirk with a funeral at Phoenix in the US state of Arizona. The ceremony is reminiscent of a canonization in the United States.

Already at dawn, thousands of people gathered in front of the football stadium in Glendale, as reporters reported. The program started there at noon – with Christian music, prayers and singing. In front of the stadium, supporters Kirks “USA” calls were made.

The Arizona Cardinals stadium holds up to 73,000 spectators. The conservative broadcaster Fox News, as well as numerous right online platforms, reports in detail about the funeral service.

The speakers include Kirk’s widow Erika. After Charlie Kirk’s death, she announced on September 10, whose movement and the youth organization “Turning Point USA” to preserve, whose management has now taken over.

The “New York Times” told Erika Kirk that a spiritual leader was silenced with her husband. “I am firmly convinced that this was God’s plan,” she said. None other than Jesus Christ released her husband. “The ball came, it blinked and was in heaven,” said the mother of two children about Charlie Kirk.

US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are also on site. Prominent preachers and musicians also appear from the evangelical spectrum. According to information, Trump is expected to appear as the last of a number of speakers.

Before his departure from Washington, Trump announced that he would “celebrate the life of a great man” in his commemorative speech for Kirk. Kirk was close to the government of Trump and his family – especially son Don Jr. Because of the large number of representatives of the White House and other government officials who take part in the funeral service, journalists were needed for the trip from Washington to Arizona.

The 31 -year -old Kirk was shot at an event in Utah on September 10th. The alleged assassin threatens the death penalty. The grief and anger among the supporters of the right activist is great. Kirk was considered one of the most famous faces of the American right.

With podcasts and appearances he reached an audience of millions. In the election campaign, he contributed to making Trump more popular among young voters. Critics accused him of racist, homophobic, hostile and sexist positions.

In the meantime, Trump is accused of using the attack on Kirk for a stricter gait against political opponents or the free press. The minority leader of the US Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, even sees the USA on the “way to the dictatorship”, as he told CNN on Sunday.

But also in the Trump camp there are warnings not to go too far. After the dismantling of the late night show by the Trump-critical satirist Jimmy Kimmel and Trump’s threat with a license with a license against all critical US stations, the Senator Ted Cruz spoke up from the Republicans. He said the procedure reminded him of the mafia film “The Godfather”.

“The mafioso comes to a bar and says’ nice bar that you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it,” said Cruz about the threats against media. However, the Republican did not go so far to criticize Trump himself, instead he complained about the head of the US media supervisory authority, Brendan Carr.