Democrat Jasmine Crockett branded murdered activist Charlie Kirk racist just hours before his memorial service began.
The firebrand sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday morning and said the Republican was someone who frequently shared, ‘rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color’.
Bash, who spoke to US Senator Chuck Schumer just before talking to Crockett, brought up that Crockett was one of 58 Democrats who voted against a resolution honoring Kirk.
When asked why she chose to do so, the Texas Rep., replied: ‘You know what, one of the things that I do want to point out that’s not been laid out that honestly hurts my heart, is when I saw the “No” votes, there were only two caucasians.
‘For the most part, the only people who voted “No” were people of color because the rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color,’ Crockett continued.
She went on to say that it’s ‘unfortunate’ that her fellow colleagues ‘could not see how harmful his rhetoric was, specifically to us’.
Crockett also said that just a month before he died, Kirk was ‘talking negatively’ about her on his podcast.
‘So if there was anyway that I was going to honor somebody who decided that they were just going to negatively talk about me and proclaim that I was somehow involved in the great white replacement, yeah I’m not honoring that kind of stuff, especially as a civil rights attorney and understanding how I got to congress.
‘Knowing that there were people that died, people that were willing to die that worked to make sure that voices like mine could exist in this place,’ said Crockett.
Her comments came just before Kirk’s memorial began at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday.
Erika Kirk reveals whether she would like her husband’s killer to face the death penalty
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Lines of more than 200,000 mourners snaked outside the venue for hours ahead of the memorial for the conservative founder of Turning Point USA, who was assassinated at Utah Valley University on September 10.
President Donald Trump will lead mourners at the service, as well as Vice President JD Vance and senior members of Trump’s cabinet.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, will also deliver a eulogy — just days after it was announced she will succeed her late husband as head of his powerhouse organization.
Just before her husband’s service, Erika revealed how she feels about his alleged killer being executed.
Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested two days after Kirk was fatally shot in the neck while on the first stop of Turning Point USA’s ‘American Comeback Tour’.
Erika, former Miss Arizona, said she wants the government to decide what happens to Robinson.
‘I’ve had people ask, “Do you feel anger toward this man? Like, do you want to seek the death penalty?” I’ll be honest. I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this,’ Erika, 36, told The New York Times.
She went on to say she does not want anything to do with the decision because it could create unwanted guilt, especially when it comes to her Christian faith.
‘I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger. Because when I get to heaven, and Jesus is like: “Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?” And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?,’ Erika continued.
Speaking for the first time since her emotional speech just two days after her partner died, Erika revealed the exact moment she heard he’d been shot.
She had planned on traveling with him from Arizona to Utah that day, but she had to be with her mother who was undergoing medical treatment, Erika said.
Around 11.23am local time, she got a frantic call from Michael McCoy, her husband’s assistant, stating ‘He’s been shot!’
Erika hopped in one of Kirk’s chartered planes but it was too late as he was pronounced dead while she was in the air.
‘I’m looking at the clouds and the mountains. It was such a gorgeous day, and I was thinking: This is exactly what he last saw,’ she recalled.
Once she arrived at the hospital, Erika met with a sheriff who gave her the option to see Charlie’s body – something he advised against her doing because of the severe damage the bullet did to his neck.
Nonetheless, she insisted she see her husband one last time.
She recalled telling the sheriff, ‘With all due respect, I want to see what they did to my husband.’
Once his deceased body was in front of her, Erika said she knew ‘he’d died happy’.
‘His eyes were semi-open. And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven,’ she said, adding that she kissed him – something that she didn’t do before he left the house that morning.