From the New York Post: Former President Barack Obama believes the nation is at an “inflection point” following Charlie Kirk’s assassination as the Democrat said in his first public comments on the tragedy Tuesday that the conservative commentator’s violent death was a “tragedy” regardless of his views.
“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.”
Obama, 64, was speaking to an audience of about 8,000 people at the Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, during the Jefferson Educational Society’s Global Summit XVII.
Obama continued, “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. I mourn for him and his family. He was a young man with two small children and a wife, who obviously had a huge number of friends and supporters who cared about him. So we have to extend grace to people during their period of mourning and shock.”
Despite calling for calm, Obama then took a divisive dig at the Trump administration.
“I’ve noticed that there’s been some confusion around this lately coming from the White House and some of the other positions of authority… that suggest even before we had determined who the perpetrator of this evil act was, that somehow we’re going to identify an enemy, we’re going to suggest that somehow that enemy was at fault and we are then going to use that as a rationale for trying to silence discussion around who we are as a country and what direction we should go, and that’s a mistake,” he said.
Obama accused Trump of calling political opponents “enemies,” and claimed, “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. 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.”
Reporting on Obama’s remarks, local news outlet, the Erie Times-News, pointed out that during the 80-minute discussion, Obama never once said a word about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
full transcript and video of @BarackObama remarks last night 👇https://t.co/4HbaXD64lA
— Eric Schultz (@EricSchultz) September 17, 2025
On the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated, Obama wrote 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. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
He was blasted by conservative X users for his statement.
The rhetoric in the Democrat Party is what motivated this attack you sanctimonious piece of shit.
It’s people like you who gave rise to the radical left. The same radical left that tried to assassinate Trump, and likely the same radical left that just assassinated Charlie Kirk.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) September 10, 2025
We know exactly what fucking motivated them. You started a race war in America. Your party called conservatives nazis and fascists. Your party has blood on its hands.
— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) September 10, 2025
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