A floor dispute in the U.S. House over Charlie Kirk’s death marked the start of partisan clashes between Republicans and Democrats over responsibility for the nation’s latest high-profile shooting.
The debate intensified after former President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he “doesn’t know” what motivated Kirk’s killer, a remark that quickly drew criticism from the right. “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,” Obama wrote in a post on X.
OutKick founder Clay Travis, speaking on Fox News, sharply criticized the former president, accusing him of fueling instability by reinforcing rhetoric that has portrayed Donald Trump and his supporters as Nazis and fascists for more than a decade.
“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!”
“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 added.
In 2016, Obama privately referred to Trump as a “fascist” during a phone call with Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate, NBC News previously reported. During an event with Kaine, Clinton expressed her agreement with Obama’s sentiment, stating that they must do everything possible to “keep a fascist out of the White House.”
Travis then pointed to the arrest of Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old would-be assassin who told authorities he tried to kill Trump in West Palm Beach because he equated him with Hitler. “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 said.
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