Erika Kirk interrupted at Turning Point by heckler shouting vile slur... before Charlie's widow hits back with response that sparks a standing ovation

By STEPHEN M. LEPORE, US SENIOR REPORTER Published: 03:52, 6 June 2026 | Updated: 03:58, 6 June 2026 Erika Kirk was accused of 'protecting pedophiles' by a heckler during her speech at the Turning Point USA Women's Leadership Summit on Friday in Texas.  Kirk, who has taken over as CEO of TPUSA in the wake of her husband Charlie's assassination, was giving her address when interrupted. The female heckler repeated: 'Erika Kirk protects pedophiles! Erika Kirk protects pedophiles!'  As the crowd booed, however, Kirk turned the jeers to applause with a comeback. 'Happiness comes and goes and I pray that you find it,' she said. The crowd in San Antonio roared with approval as the heckler was removed, shouting 'we love you, Erika!' 'I love you guys, too,' responded Kirk.  'That's an important moment because, that just showed duty to faithfulness gives our life meaning and we must pray for our enemies and those that do not feel that their life has meaning.' Erika Kirk was accused of 'protecting pedophiles' by a heckler during her speech at the Turning Point USA Women's Leadership Summit on Friday in Texas The crowd went wild again with cheers and repeated that they loved the Turning Point CEO.  'That's a perfect example. You pray for your enemies, you pray for those that persecute you. That's not the enemy, we know who the real enemy is.' Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a speech at Utah Valley University last September.  Erika also was in attendance and seeing in tears leaving the White House Correspondents Dinner following an assassination attempt against Donald Trump.  The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.