Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered perhaps one of the most powerful messages about the life and impact of the late Charlie Kirk.
RFK, Jr. spoke to a huge crowd at a prayer vigil for Kirk on Sunday, telling viewers that if it wasn’t for Kirk, he would not be where he is today.
RFK, Jr. said that Kirk had been the reason that he and President Donald Trump had joined forces in the summer of 2024, with RFK, Jr. now leading HHS and the popular “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
crowd that Kirk, whom he’d met more than a decade earlier, had been the driving force behind his joining the Trump campaign.
“I went on his podcast, and I think we approached each other with a lot of trepidation at that time, but, by the end of the podcast, we were soul mates, we were spiritual brothers, and we were friends,” Kennedy said of his first meeting with Kirk before adding, “And over the next couple of years, our friendship blossomed … He ended up being a primary architect of my unification with President Trump.”
Kennedy and the crowd laughed together as he recalled that the sparklers at the TPUSA rally — where Kennedy endorsed Trump — had been Charlie’s idea as well.
“I had a conversation once with Charlie,” Kennedy added. “We were talking about the danger that we were both challenging entrenched interests, and he asked if I was scared of dying. And I said, ‘There [are] a lot worse things than dying.’”
He noted that Kirk had voiced a desire to “die fighting with our boots on,” Kennedy concluded, “Charlie gave his life so that the rest of us would not have to suffer those fates worse than death. Now it’s our job — he’s no longer there to lead us — to rush in and fill the breach and win the battle for our country, for God, and for our families.”
Take a look at Kennedy’s powerful message —
RFK Jr. is a little too familiar with assassinations, which makes him the perfect person to speak to the nation at this critical time.
This speech is healing. pic.twitter.com/vfw2rhdcMm
— Anna Matson (@AnnaRMatson) September 15, 2025
Kennedy, who himself already has much personal experience with political assassinations, said his voice was especially important because of that experience.
Both his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, were shot while holding or seeking public office.
Kennedy also stared a story during his speech about his 17-year-old niece, who was preparing to leave for Europe for college when her mother noticed that she’d packed a Bible in her suitcase.
When asked about it, Kennedy said his teenage niece’s response was simple:
“I want to live like Charlie Kirk.”