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Former President Barack Obama weighed in shortly after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA.
It appeared that Obama attempted to downplay the severity of the situation after someone fatally shot Kirk while he was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
“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,” Obama tweeted.
It didn’t take long for many to slam Obama for his “tone deaf” statement.
During an interview on Fox News, Outkick founder Clay Travis accused Obama of emboldening deranged, violent individuals who have heard endlessly over the past decade that President Donald Trump and his supporters are Nazis and fascists undermining the fabric of American democracy.
“You can’t call the president of the United States Adolf Hitler for 10 years, and you can’t say that he’s a fascist dictator,” Travis angrily responded to news of Obama’s note.
“You cannot say that anyone who voted for Trump or advocated for him like you, me, Riley, and Charlie Kirk are Nazis, and then when someone tries to kill us, suddenly say, ‘Oh, we condemn this violence.’ You caused it!” he screamed, pointing straight ahead.
“Look at me right now! You caused this! When you tell people that someone is Hitler, you are telling crazy people: Go kill them. And I am sick of pretending that is anything other than what they are doing,” Travis said.
“This is what they do. This left-wing violence, it’s out of control, and Charlie Kirk bore the brunt of that left-wing violence,” he added.
Other Democratic politicians, like U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), recoiled in disgust when asked on Wednesday whether her party’s rhetoric played a role in Kirk’s murder.
“Oh, please,” she exclaimed outside the Capitol. “Why don’t you start with the President of the United States?”
The FBI said it is working with state and local police “to fully investigate and seek justice in the fatal shooting” of Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA, at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
The FBI sought the public’s help in identifying the person responsible, asking anyone with information, images, or videos related to the crime to submit it to the police.
FBI Director Kash Patel said earlier that the agency “stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.”
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason called the shooting a “targeted attack,” and said the scene is a “very large area.”
Mason said the “only information” they have on the possible shooter was taken from CCTV on campus, and that the person was dressed in all dark clothing. The shot was fired on campus from a “longer distance,” potentially from a roof, he said.
Separately, authorities said they are also looking at security camera video depicting someone dressed in all dark clothing and that “the shooter is believed to have fired from the roof of a building down to the location of the public event in the student courtyard,” according to a statement from law enforcement officials last night.
In a video posted to social media, Trump said, “It’s a long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree.”
“For years, those on the radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” he added. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
