Vice President JD Vance was set to journey to Utah on Thursday to pay his respects to slain Charlie Kirk and skipped the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero.

Vance and his wife planned to fly to Salt Lake City to console Kirk’s widow, Erika, and their two children instead of attending the annual ceremony in lower Manhattan marking the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.

“Charlie Kirk was a true friend,” Vance tweeted in a lengthy tribute. “The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him.”

The veep’s decision to mourn Kirk instead of attending the 9/11 rites underlines the weight the White House and the MAGA movement place on the murder.

Several senior White House officials did attend the poignant Manhattan ceremony, including FBI Director

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