JD Vance skips 9/11 rites at Ground Zero to pay respects to slain Charlie Kirk

Dave Goldiner and Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Sep 11, 2025

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Vice President JD Vance was set to journey to Utah on Thursday to pay his respects to slain Charlie Kirk and skipped the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero.

Vance and his wife planned to fly to Salt Lake City to console Kirk’s widow, Erika, and their two children instead of attending the annual ceremony in lower Manhattan marking the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.

“Charlie Kirk was a true friend,” Vance tweeted in a lengthy tribute. “The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him.”

The veep’s decision to mourn Kirk instead of attending the 9/11 rites underlines the weight the White House and the MAGA movement place on the murder.

Several senior White House officials did attend the poignant Manhattan ceremony, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

President Donald Trump attended a Sept. 11 memorial at the Pentagon, which was also struck by the suicidal hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people in the worst-ever terror attack on American soil.

“Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champ of liberty, an inspiration to millions and millions of people,” Trump said.

The president also led a chorus of tributes to the youth influencer who was credited by allies and critics alike with helping to build a renewed right-wing movement among young people.

Flags were ordered lowered to half mast across the nation as Republicans and Democrats alike called for an end to political violence.

Trump blamed the killing on “radical left-wing rhetoric” and vowed to hold those responsible accountable for the murder.

Democrats also denounced the killing and called for lowering the temperature of political conflict.

Mayor Eric Adams compared the Kirk killing to the 9/11 attacks and called it a “terrorist attack,” even though no motive has been identified in the shooting.

“It’s the same hate that drove two planes into the World Trade Center that drove a bullet through the neck of Charlie Kirk,” Adams told Fox News.