Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination on September 10, 2025, his widow, Erika Kirk, has been under the spotlight. From being named the CEO of Turning Point USA to her controversial hug with the U.S. Vice President, JD Vance, Erika’s life has made constant headlines since her husband passed away.
The renewed attention on Erika following her husband’s passing has naturally drawn both praises and critiques. While a section of the MAGA population goes gaga over Erika and her swift rise to power and fame, there are also some celebrities who have been fiercely critical of Erika and have made no attempt to hide their feelings about her.
For instance, Sweet Home Oklahoma alum Jennifer Welch called Erika Kirk out on multiple issues, including Erika’s bizarre comment on Zohran Mamdani’s New York Mayoral win as she claimed that women voted for Mamdani as a replacement for their husbands.
Erika Kirk be everywhere but with her kids.
— Christine Quinn (@XtineQuinn) December 10, 2025
In an episode of the I’ve Had It podcast that Welch co-hosts with Angie Sullivan, she criticized Erika for preaching the kind of lifestyle to women that she herself does not follow. Welch said, “You actually allow yourself to be afforded all of the luxuries of all of the civil rights fight that the suffragettes and other women fought for you to be able to be a full-time working mother, to be the CEO of a company. You just weaponize your gender to rubes so that you can grift off of them.”
She also commented on Erika’s choice of her outfit for The New York Times interview, saying, “For you to sit there and know enough and to be smart enough that if you were dressed in your lace Tammy Faye Bakker outfit with tarantula eyes and the big bouffant evangelical hair that you couldn’t stroll up to the New York Times and sit down and be taken seriously … You are an opportunistic grifter who weaponizes your gender to demean women.”
Another celebrity in this list is Cadence Owens, whose initial problem with Erika was that she was named the CEO of Turning Point USA right after Charlie was shot. Talking about the same, Owens said, “The messaging that is coming out of Turning Point USA — so this is Erika in her CEO and her chairman capacity — has just been unacceptable, right? It can’t be both. … You can’t want fame only on your command.”
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Later, she doubled down on her stance, saying, “She should never have become the CEO and chairman overnight, because now when people have questions, you gotta answer them, right? Now you’re not just a grieving widow, which there has to be respectability for, and space, and allow her to be a mother, but you very quickly decided that you were equipped to be Charlie.”
Selling Sunset alum Christine Quinn is another of the celebrities who has been quite vocal in her criticism of Erika Kirk. In a post on X, Quinn wrote about Erika, saying, “Erika Kirk be everywhere but with her kids.” The post seemed to come without a context but it might have something to do with the fact that CBS Town Hall was filmed the same day.
Quinn’s post found support in the comments as netizens highlighted how hypocritical it was of Erika to live a life contrary to the values her husband promoted for women. Asking other women to stay at home and take care of their children and families while those in power do the exact opposite provides a base for valid criticism and Quinn simply pointed out the hypocrisy in Erika.
Liberal commentator Joy Reid also publicly showed her dislike for Erika following the widow’s controversial hug with Vance. In an episode of I Have Had It, Reid responded to Welch’s comments on the hug, saying, “Holding on the back of his head and rubbing on his head … why you holding the back of his head? You’re not doing the right thing. You’re supposed to be a widow — you’re in leather pants? That’s not widow wear!”
From her choice of outfits to the kind of life she chose after her husband’s passing, Erika has drawn criticism from multiple celebrities belonging to different political and social spectrums. One of the major points that most of these critics have raised is how quickly she took over Turning Point USA and how she leads a life that does not match with what she preaches.
