…….From prominent journalists to one of the most well-known writers of fiction, many individuals with large followings have peddled lies about Kirk’s position on a number of issues, such as race and anti-semitism. Some of these individuals have since offered mea culpas or publicly apologized, while others have made no recognition of their false statements.
Karen Attiah, a former Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post, publicly revealed on Monday that the news outlet fired her for alleged social media violations. In her Substack post detailing her termination, she outlined her recent online posts — some of which included diatribes against “white men” — and included a quote allegedly stated by Kirk.
Karen Attiah, a former Global Opinions editor for The Washington Post, publicly revealed on Monday that the news outlet fired her for alleged social media violations. In her Substack post detailing her termination, she outlined her recent online posts — some of which included diatribes against “white men” — and included a quote allegedly stated by Kirk.
The fired WaPo writer took to Bluesky to falsely quote Kirk as saying, “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”
“My only direct reference to Kirk was one post— his own words on record,” Attiah wrote on Substack about the fake quote.
However, these were not Kirk’s “own words.” The origin of Attiah’s fake quote likely originated from a warped interpretation of a comment he made during a July 13, 2023, episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” in which he specifically talked about four specific individuals who happened to be black — Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, television host Joy Reid, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Several independent fact checkers corrected the record, but that did not stop others from continuing to claim online that the quote was real, including Pulitzer Prize winner Laurie Garrett.
A viral claim that circulated online was that Kirk advocated for the stoning of gays. Perhaps the largest purveyor of this lie was famous horror author Stephen King.
“He advocated stoning gays to death. Just sayin’,” King posted on X in a since-deleted post, where he boasts nearly seven million followers.
The post drew immediate backlash, with GOP Texas Sen. Cruz calling him a “horrible, evil, twisted liar.”
The famous fiction writer later recanted and deleted his original post, saying “The horrible, evil, twisted liar apologizes. This is what I get for reading something on Twitter w/o fact-checking. Won’t happen again.”
King was not the only prominent individual forced to offer a mea culpa for spreading this false rumor.
Alastair Campbell, a former Labour Party official and journalist, issued an apology on X after claiming on a popular podcast show that Kirk supported the stoning of gay people.
“Apologies for this. I had seen a clip on social media which did not have the full context, and had seen others making the same claim… Kirk did have views with which I strongly disagree but this was not among them,” Campbell said in a statement.
Jaimee Michelle, a lesbian conservative activist and founder of Gays Against Groomers, spoke out in support of Kirk after his assassination. Speaking in response to the false accusation about stoning gays, the self-described “right wing lesbian” said Kirk welcomed gay people to the conservative movement and that her group worked alongside Turning Point “many times” over the years.
“That time Charlie Kirk called an Asian woman in the audience ‘chink’ multiple times. He made millions off of his racism and sexism,” stated an X post by @alluring_nyc. The post, which at the time of this article’s publication has been shared roughly 14,000 times, included a video of Kirk appearing to use the racial slur repeatedly during a debate.
The problem with this claim is that Kirk was addressing Cenk Uygur, the Turkish-born progressive commentator and co-founder of The Young Turks. The word was an apparent reference to Uygur’s name.
The heated exchange, which took place during an October 2018 Politicon event, was covered by the media at the time.
The New York Times was forced to issue a correction on Thursday, admitting that it incorrectly attributed an anti-semitic comment to Kirk in a write-up detailing his overall political views.
“An earlier version of this article described incorrectly an antisemitic statement that Charlie Kirk had made on an episode of his podcast. He was quoting a statement from a post on social media and went on to critique it. It was not his own statement,” the correction states.
The NYT had initially reported that Kirk, while speaking on his podcast in 2023, stated that Jewish communities were “pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites” that they wanted people to stop using against them. In actuality, the late activist was quoting a social media post that he proceeded to criticize, clarifying that not all Jewish people held such beliefs.
Charlie Kirk believed that gay individuals should be welcome within the conservative movement despite his personal disagreement with homosexuality based on his Christian faith.
He stated, “I don’t agree with your lifestyle,” when addressing a gay college student, but added that sexual orientation should not define a person’s identity, saying, “I don’t think you should introduce yourself just based on your sexual attraction”.
He emphasized shared political values such as “strong borders” and “a strong country” as more important than personal differences, asserting that gay people should be included in conservatism.
Charlie Kirk once welcomed a young gay man into the conservative movement and emphasized to him that the most important part of his identity isn’t defined by ‘what he does in the bedroom.’
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Charlie Kirk believed in debating political opponents. He wanted to talk out our differences as a country. He loved dialogue. He supported free speech. He used reason and logic.
They killed him for it. And they smear him for it.
Related article:
https://www.westernjournal.com/deep-dive-debunking-6-common-charlie-kirk-fake-quotes-lies-leftists/
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