Erika Kirk Opens Up About JD Vance Said in Their ‘Intense’ Onstage Hug.

Erika Kirk says she’s puzzled by the uproar over her onstage embrace with Vice President JD Vance.

On Oct. 29, seven weeks after the assassination of her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Erika took the stage at a Turning Point USA event as the organization’s new CEO. She honored her late husband before introducing Vance as the evening’s speaker.

“No one will ever replace my husband,” Erika, 37, told attendees. “But I do see some similarities of my husband in JD— in Vice President JD Vance. I do. And that’s why I am so blessed to be able to introduce him tonight.”

When the vice president, 41, joined her on stage, the two shared a close hug. Erika placed her hand on the back of his head while he briefly rested his hands at her waist.

Clips of the moment spread quickly online, with social media users dissecting where each of them placed their hands and arguing over whether the gesture was appropriate given Erika’s recent loss and Vance’s marriage.

Erika addressed the criticism while appearing with Megyn Kelly at a Megyn Kelly Live event on Saturday, Nov. 22.

“My love language is touch, if you will,” she told the crowd at Desert Diamond Arena in Phoenix, where her husband’s sold-out memorial service had been held two months earlier.

Describing the moment onstage with Vance, she said, “They just played the emotional video. I’m walking over, [JD] is walking over. I’m starting to cry. He says, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ And I say, ‘God bless you,’ and I touch the back of his head. Anyone whom I have hugged, that I have touched the back of your head when I hug you, I always say, ‘God bless you.’ ”

Kelly joked, “They were acting like you touched the back of his ass!” to which Erika replied, “I feel like I wouldn’t get as much hate if I did that!”

Just over a week after the TPUSA event, Erika attended the swearing-in of new U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, where she greeted him with a similar embrace, again placing her hand on the back of his head.

Gor, a longtime friend of Charlie Kirk, had worked with him on the White House transition team following Donald Trump’s second inauguration. In December 2024, The New York Times reported that, in addition to evaluating candidates’ qualifications, the transition team was also assessing loyalty to the MAGA movement.

According to that report, interviewers asked applicants whom they had supported in the previous three elections, how they viewed the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen, suggesting there was a preferred answer to each question.

Erika’s latest comments about the onstage hug came just days after Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, drew attention for appearing without her wedding ring during a visit to Camp Lejeune alongside first lady Melania Trump on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

Usha and JD Vance have been married since 2014 and share three children: sons Ewan, 8, and Vivek, 5, and daughter Mirabel, 3.

As speculation about their marriage spread online, a spokesperson for the second lady — who is known for keeping a low public profile — offered a simple explanation for the missing ring, noting that Usha is “a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes.”