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Erika Kirk is telling parents to “look in the mirror” and think critically about how they’re raising their children in a politically polarized world.
Speaking at a town hall hosted by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss that will air on the network on Saturday, Dec. 13, Erika addressed the impact that political violence has had on her family, and argued that all parents have a responsibility to keep their children away from online content that could radicalize them.
“I will never agree with political violence. My husband is a victim of it. I’m a victim of it. But what I’m trying to say here is that we can blame everyone else,” Erika said. “We have to look in the mirror. When you become a father, when you become a mother, how are you raising your kids?”
Erika’s husband Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed as he spoke at a campus event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. His alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, was reportedly “radicalized” by political content he consumed online, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Fox.
Michele Crowe/CBS News
“Clearly there is a lot of gaming that was going on … that deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep,” Cox said on Meet the Press on Sept. 14.
Erika also told parents to “step up” and consider the impact that spending time on electronic devices is having on their children.
“Are you taking responsibility, or are you giving them a device and saying, ‘Go down that rabbit hole. I’m tryin’ to go to Pilates class,’ ” Erika said. “You can just sit in the corner and look at your iPad or look at your phone and go down that rabbit hole and see what you can learn from that, instead of being a parent.”
Michele Crowe/CBS News
Erika continued the town hall with a “call to action” for parents, asking them to consider an important question about what they want for their kids. “Do you want your kid to be a thought leader or an assassin?” she asked. “That’s where we’re at.”
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When asked by Weiss whether or not she thought that political leaders had a “responsibility to turn the temperature down” right now, Kirk said that she was “doin’ [her] part.”
“Well, I think everyone has a responsibility to do that, and I’m doin’ my part,” she said. “I’m not in control of other people.”
Following her husband’s death, Erika was unanimously voted in by the Turning Point USA board as his replacement and the organization’s new CEO.
A Town Hall With Erika Kirk will air on Saturday, Dec 13, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. The event will stream on Paramount+.
