Former US president Barack Obama has said the country is at an 'inflection point' following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, warning that the White House response risks deepening divisions. Speaking at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania, Obama denounced political violence but cautioned against rushing to identify an 'enemy' before the facts were known.
Obama described the killings of Kirk and Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman as 'a tragedy', and criticised Donald Trump for further dividing the country. '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,' he said.
The former president noted that political violence 'is not new' in US history but is 'anathema to what it means to be a democratic country'. He contrasted his own response after the 2015 Charleston church shooting with Trump's rhetoric, arguing that a president's role in a crisis is 'to constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together'.
Obama said the sentiment among Trump and his aides of calling political opponents 'vermin, enemies … speaks to a broader problem'. The White House responded by blaming Obama for animosity, with spokesperson Abigail Jackson calling him 'the architect of modern political division in America'.
While Obama said he believed Kirk's ideas 'were wrong', he stressed that 'doesn't negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family'. He added that denouncing political violence 'doesn't mean we can't have a debate about the ideas' Kirk promoted, as long as that debate is conducted with respect.
