Former President Barack Obama expressed his condolences for the loss of Charlie Kirk at an event in Pennsylvania Tuesday, but said that he also deeply disagreed with most all of his ideas — including the resurfaced jab at his wife’s intelligence.
The 44th president of the United States specifically defended Michelle Obama’s intelligence in response to a comment the late conservative activist made about Black women.
“Obviously I didn’t know Charlie Kirk. I was generally aware of some of his ideas,” Obama said in conversation with Steve Scully at the Jefferson Educational Society on Tuesday. “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.”
“We have to extend grace to people during their period of mourning and shock,” he added. “We can also, at the same time, say that I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake. That’s not me politicizing the issue. It’s making an observation about who are we as a country.”
Kirk made comments about prominent Black women, calling them “affirmative action picks.”
“Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Kentaji Brown Jackson … We know you do not have brain processing power to otherwise be taken seriously,” he said on The Charlie Kirk Show in a clip that resurfaced as his death. “You had to go steal a white person’s slot to be taken somewhat seriously.”
In breaking down Kirk’s political ideologies, former President Obama said that he staunchly disagrees with the “suggestion that my wife or Justice Jackson does not have adequate brain processing power” or that “Martin Luther King was awful,” but he stated that in order to maintain a democracy, healthy debate is necessary.
“Those are all topics that we have to be able to discuss honestly and forthrightly, while we still insist that in that process of debate, we respect other people’s right to say things that we profoundly disagree with,” Obama said. “That’s how we should approach this.”
Watch a clip of Obama’s lengthy sit-down here:
Obama: So we have to extend to people during their period of mourning and shock.
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 17, 2025
At the same time, we can also at the same time say I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake — that’s not me politicizing the issue. It’s making an observation about… pic.twitter.com/Wdpw5qNSc5
The former president did commend Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who he said he disagrees with on a slew of other issues, for how he handled Kirk’s killing and how he has engaged with his political adversaries.
“At moments like this, when tensions are high, then part of the job of the president is to pull people together,” he added. “I think the country right now is going through sort of a political crisis of the sort that we haven’t seen before.”
The full transcript from Obama’s Tuesday conversation is available on his Medium.
