Erika Kirk calls anti-ICE protests ‘demonic’ in blunt one-word response

RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA: Erika Kirk, CEO of conservative group Turning Point USA and widow of late activist Charlie Kirk, described recent anti-ICE demonstrations as ‘demonic’ in a one-word remark during a speech on Wednesday, Jan 21, at the kickoff of her new faith-based “Make Heaven Crowded” tour in Riverside, California.

Kirk, 37, has become one of the most-watched figures in American public life. Since her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated in September, she has assumed leadership of his conservative organization.

Erika Kirk talks about protests and 3.5% rule

Speaking to the crowd, Erika Kirk called the demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration policies ‘demonic,’ a term she used to emphasize what she described as spiritual danger behind protesters’ actions.

Kirk stood in front of the church crowd and said she’d been keeping up with the news about the protests.

She mentioned watching a recent conversation between Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and Jimmy Kimmel.  Kirk recalled how Kimmel asked Maddow if she thought the protests were actually changing anything.

Maddow brought up the “3.5% rule,” the idea that if just 3.5% of people keep protesting peacefully, they can actually push real political change.

"I can't even believe I'm saying their names in a church," Kirk joked.

"Personally, I do not think they're helping," she said of the protests. "I think it's demonic. But I understood the sentiment of what she said."

Erika Kirk brings religious sentiment into conversation

While talking about her late husband, she said, "Charlie, in a way, believed deeply in the power of a faithful few that would rise up and stand for Christ, stand for the church, stand for what's good and what's beautiful in this world, and fight against evil. And it only just takes a small percentage, 3.5%."

She then held up her husband's memorial service as an example of what that 3.5% could look like.

The event filled State Farm Stadium in Arizona, with an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 attendees and over 100 million streams, according to Turning Point USA.

"It did not matter if you were Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic; it didn't matter," she said. "You were all there under the banner of Christ."

"You showed the difference of when 3.5% of this nation rises up and prays for this nation and is in revival," Kirk said, "compared to the other side of what they think can change this nation but actually destroy it."

"The view of that is striking."

Anti-ICE protests have intensified in recent weeks following the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations.