Radio host Steve Deace has spent the past few days in absolute horror over conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination, contending some of the responses he’s seen come from “the bowels of hell.”

The popular host said he’s still in shock by what unfolded, as he mourns for Kirk’s widow, Erika, and the couple’s two small children.

Listen to the latest episode of “Quick Start”

“I’ve sobbed more this week probably than I have the night of my conversion,” he said. “But those were different kinds of tears. I think I’m outta tears — and then I think about those two little kids, particularly his son, who’s going to have no memories at all that he’ll be able to recall his entire life of his interactions with his dad.”

Deace said the entire situation is “surreal” and called the loss “incalculable,” proclaiming that the “enemy knew right where to hit us.”

“Charlie was just such a towering figure,” Deace said. “The last text I got from him was on Tuesday and he told me, ‘You are a good and dear friend.’ And I would imagine there are literally hundreds of people in our business and movement who have received those kinds of texts from him.”

Deace said one of the things that made Kirk so effective was his willingness to go “where the seekers were.” He believes this is why Kirk became such a target, especially for forces of evil seeking to stop the truth from reaching hearts and minds.

“He was reaching the kinds of new people that were generational men that were maybe just new husbands and fathers, or not yet that,” Deace said. “And that’s the cornerstone, that’s headship and that resets the board of generations in a family line.”

The radio host noted Kirk successfully convinced him and many others that it was possible to reach America’s young generation.

“He was one of the few that still believed that,” Deace said. “They killed them for it, and I worry about what comes next.”

Deace said Kirk was out on Utah Valley University’s campus “doing the work that a lot of 50, 60, 70-year-old pastors didn’t wanna do.”

“While they wanted to make sure they were purpose-driven or something for the last 40 years, they didn’t wanna get their hands dirty,” Deace told. “And Charlie did it on their behalf and took the bullet, frankly, that their calling said they should be willing to take.”

Deace believes many pastors and churches see this as a “waking-up moment.”

“I hope Charlie’s martyrdom shames them in a good way,” Deace said, hoping to see most pastors be willing to engage the way Kirk did.

Deace also said he believes Kirk “grew in his faith” in the past few years and that it was reflected in his work and focus.

“He began to understand that and prioritize this all the more,” he said. “And I think it’s no coincidence that, when he did that, he experienced a different level of influence and success than he already had just being seen primarily as a political activist.”

One of the most troubling facets of the Kirk assassination has been that some people have almost relished in it on social media. Deace addressed this head-on.

“I take great pleasure in defeating the ideologies I don’t agree with at the ballot box, and I would expect they do the same to me,” he said. “But taking sadistic pleasure in the cold-blooded murder of somebody like selling T-shirts, ‘Debate this’ with Charlie bleeding out of his neck, that stuff’s just right outta the bowels of hell.”