House Moment of Silence Honors Slain ‘Dear Friend Charlie Kirk’

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson held a moment of silence on the House floor Wednesday afternoon for Turning Point USA founder and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at an event he was holding at Utah Valley University.

Johnson, R-La., announced the moment of silence to reporters shortly before entering the House floor, and before news confirmed Kirk’s passing.

“I’m going to go and ask my colleagues to join me in a moment of silence for our dear friend Charlie Kirk. We ask everyone to pray for him and his family,” said Johnson, adding:

“I’m just going to state the obvious here. This is detestable, what has happened. Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are. It violates the core principles of our country, our Judeo-Christian heritage, our civil society, our American way of life, and it must stop.

“We need every political figure, we need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly: We can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner, and political violence must be called out and it has to stop.”

Johnson proceeded to the House floor, where members of the House joined him in a moment of silence. 

After the moment of silence concluded, an uproar began in the crowd when Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., requested a moment of prayer out loud. An unidentified House member replied, “No,” and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., shouted, “Y’all caused this.”

Johnson slammed his speaker’s gavel and said, “The House will be in order,” a number of times.

Kirk, 31, is survived by his wife and two children.