“And then 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,” Obama said as he addressed the shocking murder during a Pennsylvania forum.
“Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy.”
He also accused President Trump and his administration of fueling the sharp political division across the United States.
“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,” he claimed, according to the Erie Times-News.
“When we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we’ve got a problem.
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“And so your original question was, ‘Are we at an inflection point?’ We’re at an inflection point in the sense that we always have to fight for our democracy and we have to fight for those values that have made this country the envy of the world.”
“Look, obviously I didn’t know Charlie Kirk,” Obama said. “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.”
Kirk was shot and killed last week while speaking at Utah Valley University, leaving behind a wife and two young children.
His alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, was nabbed more than 30 hours after the shooting and was charged with aggravated murder.
Kirk was shot and killed last week while speaking at Utah Valley University, leaving behind a wife and two young children.
The first public comments from Obama Tuesday come after he tweeted last week in the aftermath of the slaying.
“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 wrote on X just hours after the assassination.
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