{"id":94595,"date":"2025-09-17T22:28:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=94595"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:28:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:28:00","slug":"obama-says-us-faces-political-crisis-after-killing-of-charlie-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=94595","title":{"rendered":"Obama says US faces \u2018political crisis\u2019 after killing of Charlie Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former US President Barack Obama has warned of a \u201cpolitical crisis of the sort that we haven\u2019t seen before\u201d in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

At an event in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Obama said he did not know Kirk and disagreed with many of his views, but called the killing \u201chorrific and a tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He criticised Donald Trump\u2019s remarks towards his political opponents and pointed to previous Republican presidents who, he said, emphasised national unity in moments of high tension, US media report.<\/p>\n

In response, the White House called Obama the \u201carchitect of modern political division\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kirk, 31, died of a single gunshot wound while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem on 10 September.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Tyler Robinson, 22, was formally charged with Kirk\u2019s murder, weapons offences and other charges. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said Robinson\u00a0had sent text messages\u00a0which allegedly said he shot Kirk because he \u201chad enough of his hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before Robinson was captured, top Trump allies pinned blame for the killing on left-wing activists and rhetoric from Democratic lawmakers and their supporters.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi has suggested that the administration will crack down on \u201chate speech\u201d \u2013 although there is no specific US hate speech law. Vice-President JD Vance has led calls to expose people who celebrated or condoned Kirk\u2019s killing or were critical of him after his slaying.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall them out, and hell, call their employer,\u201d\u00a0Vance said\u00a0as he guest-hosted Kirk\u2019s podcast.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, Obama said: \u201cI think at moments like this, when tensions are high, then part of the job of the president is to pull people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged Americans to \u201crespect other people\u2019s right to say things that we profoundly disagree with\u201d.<\/p>\n

Obama praised Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a conservative Republican who he said had shown \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

He also endorsed the response of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, whose official residence was firebombed earlier this year in what police called a targeted attack.<\/p>\n

The former president contrasted those reactions with comments made by Trump and his allies.<\/p>\n

Obama said that he did not use a 2015 mass shooting by a white supremacist at a black church in South Carolina to go after his political enemies, and pointed out that after the 11 September 2001 attacks, President George W Bush \u201cexplicitly went out of his way to say, \u2018We are not at war against Islam\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so when I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents \u2018vermin\u2019, enemies who need to be \u2018targeted,\u2019 that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and something that we\u2019re going to have to grapple with, all of us,\u201d Obama told the crowd, according to reports.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the BBC, a White House spokesperson rejected the allegations and accused Obama of stoking division while he was president.<\/p>\n

\u201cObama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis division has inspired generations of Democrats to slander their opponents as \u2018deplorables,\u2019 or \u2018fascists,\u2019 or \u2018Nazis.’\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving office, US presidents generally tend to temper criticism of their successors, however in recent months Obama has hit out at Trump\u2019s moves against universities and judges, and has also criticised Democratic party leaders for failing to push back harder against White House policies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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