Former President Barack Obama publicly addressed the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Tuesday, marking his first extensive remarks on the killing.
Speaking at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania, Obama called the incident both “a threat to all of us” and “a tragedy.”
Obama’s comments came during a conversation with broadcaster Steve Scully.
He began by emphasizing the need for unity in condemning political violence. “When it happens to somebody, even if you think they’re quote unquote ‘on the other side of the argument,’ that’s a threat to all of us, and we have to be clear and forthright and condemn it.”
“Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy,” Obama said.
The former president then shifted his remarks to criticize President Donald Trump and his administration. “But I’ll say this — those extreme views were not in my White House. I wasn’t empowering them. I wasn’t putting the weight of the United States government behind them”
“When we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we’ve got a problem,” Obama stated.
His words marked the first time he has publicly spoken about Kirk’s death in a live event. The Post Millennial outlined that until now, Obama’s only response had come through a written statement on social media.
Shortly after news of Kirk’s assassination broke, Obama posted a message on X. “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” the statement read.
“Michelle and I will pray for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
The phrasing of Obama’s online statement quickly drew attention.
In particular, the line, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk,” triggered criticism from users who accused the former president of downplaying the motives of the shooter.
WATCH:
Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy similarly landed himself in hot water last week over his reaction to Charlie Kirk’s assassination after it was revealed he believes the so-called divisiveness of Trump played a major role in the conservative activist’s death.
Portnoy said, “When I say Trump has a huge part in it, I don’t necessarily mean he’s to blame for it, but he’s so divisive… [even just] his face is divisive.”
“People hate him so much,” the stoolie boss added, Resist the Mainstream previously reported.
“And the left and the right, the rhetoric–especially to me the left, is insane–and it just boils, boils, boils, boils.”
He continued, “This happened with Trump, when his assassination attempt [happened] there was like a three-hour period of ‘let’s tone down the rhetoric,’ and then they’re right back to it.”
Portnoy then added: “If you sit there and you call people Nazis over and over and over, and say that they’re threatening Democracy and they’re fascist over and over… you can’t then be like, ‘What happened?’”
“That goes together, because if you truly think you’re killing a Nazi, or you truly think you’re killing a fascist, in your head you’re thinking ‘I did good for society.’”
