By Keily Henriquez/Cronkite News
GLENDALE – Tara Hall walked with a smile through the busy parking lot at State Farm Stadium in Glendale – even after she was turned away from the Charlie Kirk memorial.
The trek to Phoenix had already been an ordeal. When her flight from South Carolina was delayed, she drove three hours to the Atlanta airport, barely making it onto a flight 10 minutes before the doors closed. She arrived at her hotel at 1:30 a.m., and after an hour and a half of sleep, pulled herself out of bed so she could pay her respects to Kirk, who was fatally shot at a college event in Utah on Sept. 10.
By 3:30 a.m., she had joined tens of thousands of others hoping to make it inside the stadium.
Hall said she met many people like herself, all sharing what Kirk and his political activism and religious conviction had meant to them. Strangers shared prayer sessions and hugs. Even though she couldn’t join the throngs inside, she still thought the trip was worth the hassle.
“I’ve already got like 10 numbers, I’ve gotten 10 hugs,” Hall said. “We’re all feeling the same thing. We’re all feeling a quickening of faith, just being lifted up, and we’ve got to be bold for our faith.”
That theme of faith played out inside a packed stadium as speaker after speaker – including the biggest names in Republican politics and media – blended politics with religion as they paid tribute to the slain founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative political advocacy organization.
Pictures of Kirk hung next to American flags and Arizona Cardinals banners.
President Donald Trump, who repeated his promise to award Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, was one of many speakers who described him as a martyr.
“Our greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal. He’s a martyr now for American freedom,” Trump said. “We have to have religion brought back to America – we want to bring God back into our beautiful U.S.A. like never before.”
Those who managed to make it inside the stadium, such as Kelsey Griffin, reflected on Kirk’s life and the impact he had on their lives.
“Is there any question he didn’t know the answer to? Wow,” Griffin said. “You know, like helping me learn politics and different communities, just things like I didn’t have time to sit down and research on my own, he knew the answers.”
Many speakers and attendees shared similar religious beliefs to Hall. Speakers, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Tucker Carlson, and Donald Trump Jr., shared memories of Kirk and spoke forcefully about their Christian beliefs.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, delivered a speech that was a marked departure from the overall tone of forgiveness and grace. He described Kirk’s supporters in the stadium and around the country as “the storm” and directed an ominous threat to what he described as the nation’s enemies.
“You have nothing,” Miller said. “You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity.”
In the early morning hours of Sunday, approximately 200,000 people gathered to pay their respects to Kirk after his passing. Many dressed in their Sunday best or in some combination of red, white, and blue. The stadium was packed, with tens of thousands more unable to get in.
Thousands waited for hours in a line that police said stretched for a mile, eager to pay their respects and see Trump and others speak in person.
Some guests hoping to get inside the stadium parked two miles away in residential streets and made the pilgrimage to the stadium.
Due to the presence of high-profile speakers, there was a substantial security presence. Guests weren’t allowed to bring any bags or anything that could be used as a weapon. Those who brought snacks and water in plastic grocery bags for the long wait had to abandon them at the security checkpoint, leaving huge piles next to the gates.
By 9:30, long before the 11:00 start time for the event, the stadium was already full.
Tens of thousands of people, like Hall, who arrived as early as 3 a.m., were unable to enter.
Meesha Fific, 26, was among those left disappointed after a long wait, though she said the tremendous turnout made her happy.
“Being an Arizona native and local, I can’t even get into an event that’s hosted in my own hometown,” she said.
As word spread that the stadium had reached capacity, many of those still outside headed to Desert Diamond Arena to watch the event on a screen carried on Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular among conservatives.
The event felt more like a political gathering than a traditional memorial. A group of about seven people who disagreed with Kirk’s beliefs stood behind a metal barricade and debated with some of Kirk’s supporters – similar to the kind of debates he was known for – with both parties listening respectfully.
Inside, Trump said he disagreed with Kirk on one thing: forgiving one’s enemies. The president joked about not forgiving his enemies as Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, implored during her tearful speech.
“It was an assault on our most sacred liberties and God-given rights,” the president said in a somber moment of his speech. “The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us. That bullet was aimed at every one of us.”
