{"id":234629,"date":"2025-09-17T20:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234629\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T20:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:10:12","slug":"obama-speaks-about-kirks-killing-and-criticizes-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234629\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama speaks about Kirk’s killing and criticizes Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former President Barack Obama<\/a> says that the United States is at \u201can inflection point\u201d following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a> and that President Donald Trump has further divided the country rather than work to bring people together. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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 resorting to violence,\u201d Obama said Tuesday night during an event in Erie, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Jefferson Education Society, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when it happens to some, but even if you think they\u2019re, quote, unquote, on the other side of the argument, that\u2019s a threat to all of us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we have to be clear and forthright in condemning them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama has kept somewhat of a low profile in his post-presidency. Responding to a moderator\u2019s questions Tuesday, he addressed Trump\u2019s rhetoric<\/a> after Kirk\u2019s assassination, as well as other administrative actions. <\/p>\n

The Democrat spoke about his own leadership<\/a> following the 2015 slaying of nine Black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, as well as Republican then-President George W. Bush\u2019s<\/a> actions following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He said he sees the role of a president in a crisis \u201cto constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together.\u201d <\/p>\n

The sentiment among Trump and his aides following Kirk\u2019s killing of calling political opponents \u201cvermin, enemies \u2026 speaks to a broader problem,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n

Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics, became a confidant of Trump<\/a> after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation\u2019s largest political organizations<\/a>. Trump has escalated threats<\/a> to crack down on what he describes as the \u201cradical left\u201d following Kirk\u2019s assassination, stirring fears his Republican administration is trying to harness outrage over the killing to suppress political opposition.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s White House on Wednesday responded to Obama\u2019s remarks by blaming him for animosity in the country, calling him \u201cthe architect of modern political division in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it,\u201d White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Obama on Tuesday also referenced Trump\u2019s recent deployment of National Guard troops<\/a> in Washington and ID checks by federal agents in Los Angeles. He urged citizens and elected officials to closely monitor the norm-busting decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing, I think, is the sense that through executive power, many of the guardrails and norms that I thought I had to abide by as president of the United States, that George Bush thought he had to abide by as president of the United States, that suddenly those no longer apply,\u201d Obama said. \u201cAnd that makes this a dangerous moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Kirk\u2019s death, Obama wrote in a post on X that he and his wife, Michelle, were praying for Kirk\u2019s family, adding: \u201cThis kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama said that he disagreed with many of Kirk\u2019s stances, noting that his position \u201cdoesn\u2019t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling political violence<\/a> \u201canathema to what it means to be a democratic country,\u201d Obama also mentioned the June shooting deaths<\/a> of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home.<\/p>\n

Obama also applauded Utah Gov. Spencer Cox\u2019s calls for civility<\/a> in leading the public response to Kirk\u2019s killing. Obama said that while he and the Republican governor \u201cdisagree on a whole bunch of stuff,\u201d Cox\u2019s messaging around how to respond to Kirk\u2019s death shows \u201cthat it is possible for us to disagree while abiding by a basic code of how we should engage in public debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just before Obama spoke, the 22-year-old suspect arrested in Kirk\u2019s killing made his first court appearance<\/a> on charges including capital murder<\/a>. According to court documents released Tuesday, as authorities sought the person who had shot and killed Kirk at Utah Valley University last week, Tyler Robinson<\/a> texted with his partner, acknowledging he had been the shooter<\/a>. A judge said he would appoint an attorney to represent Robinson, whose family has declined to comment to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http:\/\/x.com\/MegKinnardAP<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former President Barack Obama says that the United States is at \u201can inflection point\u201d following the assassination of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":234630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[10422,5643,119587,45326,11029,11744,19719,1226,84,168,69,57,3755,126128,18598,8132,50,5217,2830,80,100102,89,61,67,370,132,68,436,424,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-234629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-abigail-jackson","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-assassination-of-charlie-kirk","12":"tag-assassinations","13":"tag-az-state-wire","14":"tag-barack-obama","15":"tag-charlie-kirk","16":"tag-conservatism","17":"tag-district-of-columbia","18":"tag-domestic-news","19":"tag-donald-trump","20":"tag-general-news","21":"tag-george-w-bush","22":"tag-meg-kinnard","23":"tag-melissa-hortman","24":"tag-military-and-defense","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-pa-state-wire","27":"tag-pennsylvania","28":"tag-politics","29":"tag-spencer-cox","30":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","31":"tag-u-s-news","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-united-states-government","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-ut-state-wire","37":"tag-utah","38":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115221458031870087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}