Former President Barack Obama called last week’s assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk “horrific and a tragedy,” adding that political leaders must be “clear and forthright” in condemning violence on either side of the political spectrum.
Obama said the country is at an “inflection point” over the rise of political violence in recent months, also referencing the assassination of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman in June.
Obama made the remarks during an event at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night. They came less than a week after Kirk, co-founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, was gunned down at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
“Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy,” Obama said. “What happened … to the state legislators in Minnesota, that is horrific. It is a tragedy. And there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it, the central premise of our democratic system is that we have to be able to disagree and have sometimes really contentious debates without resort to violence. And when it happens to some but 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 in condemning them.”
Obama first addressed Kirk’s murder the day it happened, calling it “despicable violence.”
“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. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children,” he said in a post to X.
Since then, police have arrested and charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with Kirk’s murder.
“And so, look, obviously I didn’t know Charlie Kirk. I was generally aware of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong, but that doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family,” Obama said Tuesday.
“He’s a young man with two small children and a wife who obviously – and a huge number of friends and supporters who cared about him. And so, we have to extend grace to people during their period of mourning and shock,” he added.
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