Barack Obama seemingly took a jab at Donald Trump in light of the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was killed while addressing an audience at an event hosted by Turning Point USA at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with multiple offenses, including aggravated murder and obstruction of justice, in connection with the crime.
Speaking at a Pennsylvania event on September 16, Obama, the 44th President of the United States, highlighted the political crisis facing the nation following Kirk’s assassination.
A transcript released by CNN captures Obama’s remarks: “Look, obviously 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 and that I mourn for him and his family.”
He further expressed sympathy: “He’s a young man with two small children and a wife who obviously – and a huge number of friends and supporters who cared about him. And so, we have to extend grace to people during their period of mourning and shock.”
Obama then appeared to critique Trump’s response, drawing parallels to the handling of the Dylann Roof case.
Roof, 31, is currently on death row for the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which resulted in nine fatalities.
Reflecting on his presidency, Obama stated: “When I was president in the aftermath of tragedies, when Dylann Roof went into a black church and, based on his own words, shot a group of folks who were engaged in Bible study and who had invited him in. And according to him it was for racist reasons. As president of the United States, my response was not ‘who may have influenced this troubled young man to engage in that kind of violence and now let me go after my political opponents and use that’.”
Obama continued: “And so when I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents ‘vermin’, enemies who need to be ‘targeted’, that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and something that we’re going to have to grapple with, all of us. Whether we’re Democrats, Republicans, independents, we have to recognize that on both sides, there are people who are extremists and who say things that are contrary to what I believe are America’s core values.”
He emphasized that such ‘extreme views’ were absent from his administration.
In response to Obama’s comments, the White House issued a statement to the BBC: “Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other. His division has inspired generations of Democrats to slander their opponents as ‘deplorables,’ or ‘fascists,’ or ‘Nazis’.”