‘Salt of the Earth’: John Fredericks Reflects on Final Conversation with Charlie Kirk

Kaitlin Housler
Michael Patrick Leahy and John Fredericks

Washington D.C.-based radio show host John Fredericks reflected on his personal interactions with Charlie Kirk amid the Turning Point USA co-founder’s assassination on Wednesday, particularly focusing on a conversation they had during a political event in Dana Point, California.

Fredericks, on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, recounted that he and his wife, Anne, were campaigning for Harmeet Dhillon to become RNC Chair, opposing Ronna McDaniel, when Kirk approached them at an event.

He said Kirk initiated a candid and humble conversation, apologizing to him for previously resisting early voting—a strategy Fredericks had long advocated—and admitted that his opposition had been a mistake that likely cost Kari Lake the 2022 gubernatorial election in Arizona.

“He came up to me and Anne, we were sitting there and he came up to us and he said, ‘Hey, I need to talk to you for a minute…I just wanted to come over and apologize to you.’ And I’m like, for what? And he said, ‘You were right. You were right about early voting. I resisted it. I was part of the game day crowd. It cost Kari Lake the governorship in Arizona. You are 100 percent correct’,” Fredericks explained.

Fredericks continued, saying that Kirk said at the time that Fredericks had been correct from the start and declared his intention to become the nation’s strongest advocate for early voting moving forward.

“[Kirk said], ‘I just wanted to come over and say, I’m now taking your position 100 percent and I’m going to be the biggest advocate for early voting in the country’,” Fredericks said.

Fredericks highlighted the humility and respect Kirk showed during this interaction, especially considering their age difference.

“For him to come over and tell me that, right in front of Anne…if you look at that interaction, it was humble. He was respectful. I mean, he’s 31. I was in my sixties and he was in his late twenties, I guess, at that time,” he said.

Fredericks concluded by describing Kirk as “salt of the earth,” emphasizing the sincerity and personal growth evident in that moment and noted while he spoke with Kirk a few more times afterward about strategy, that encounter was the last time they met in person.

“He was just salt of the earth. I’ve talked to him about that strategy, two or three times after that, but that was the last time I was in his company,” he said.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

 

 

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