The Memo: Obama enters post-Charlie Kirk debate with 'crisis' warning

Former President Obama’s assertion that the nation is in the middle of a “political crisis” is one of his strongest interventions in recent times — and is itself a demonstration of how much American reactions to the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing have split along predictable lines.

Obama contended that the country was at an “inflection point” during his remarks Tuesday evening.

Kirk, the staunchly conservative activist and provocateur, was killed six days previously while giving remarks at Utah Valley University.

Since then, President Trump and other members of his administration have suggested they will crack down hard on liberal or left-leaning organizations that they believe foment division, as well as people who they contend have been insufficiently respectful to Kirk’s memory.

There is no evidence that the suspect in Kirk’s murder, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was working in conjunction with anyone else to allegedly carry out the killing. Text messages between Robinson and his partner, released by prosecutors on Tuesday, seemingly show the suspect confessing to the killing and saying, regarding Kirk, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

The messages also show his partner reacting in shock to the de facto confession. They leave little doubt that Robinson was acting alone.

Obama, who is careful in parceling out the frequency of his interventions in political debates, insisted that the killing of Kirk had to be condemned without equivocation, in part because of the dangers such an event causes to democracy itself.

“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,” Obama said, according to The Associated Press.

Obama added that even if people thought that any particular target of such violence was “quote, unquote, on the other side of the argument, that’s a threat to all of us” and that there was a need to be “clear and forthright” in condemning any acts of violence against them.

However, the former president also took a clear jab at Trump and his rhetoric.

“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,” he said.

Those remarks appear to be in part a response to comments Trump made at a 2023 rally in New Hampshire, in which the then-candidate said: “We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

Trump himself faced two assassination attempts on the campaign trail last year — one of which, in Butler, Pa., came within inches of killing him.

This week, however, the Trump White House predictably condemned Obama’s remarks, accusing him of having “used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other.”

In fact, the speech that initially launched Obama to national fame, delivered at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, was a plea for Americans to see beyond the stereotypes of red states and blue states, and instead recognize their commonalities.

It is difficult to imagine such a speech being given in 2025 — or its resonating with a wide swath of the country. That in itself is illustrative of how starkly the political climate has changed in the intervening years.

Whether one blames the influence of social media, the effects of economic and cultural dislocation, or Trump’s bellicose approach to politics, the nation’s fractures are at this point undeniable.

Those have had deadly consequences before Kirk’s killing. The most serious recent example was the fatal shooting, in June, of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband.

Though Obama is among those hoping for an “inflection point” toward a more civil politics, there is scant evidence that such a change is likely. On Tuesday, a gunshot was fired at the home of a Democratic state senator in Illinois, Meg Loughran Cappel. A suspect has been detained in connection with the incident, according to the local police department.

While elected officials have almost universally condemned Kirk’s murder, social media has been as noxious as ever in response.

Even on Capitol Hill, the level of political rhetoric can sometimes take on overtones that are simultaneously ominous and bizarre. An ongoing spat between Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the wake of Kirk’s killing has seen Mace seek Omar’s deportation to Somalia, and Omar respond that Mace belongs “in rehab, not Congress.”

While neither charge is an incitement to violence, it hardly augurs well for a new political age.

Trump was unusually quiet on social media on Wednesday, presumably because of his visible enjoyment of the pomp and ceremony surrounding his visit to the U.K. The president and first lady Melania Trump were the guests at a state banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Wednesday evening.

Before leaving the U.S., Trump had promised a crackdown on “each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity” of Kirk’s killing.

Trump is almost sure to cast that net very wide indeed, sparking more protests.

For the moment, there is no sign of calmer waters ahead.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.