‘Heart of democracy’: Barack Obama addresses Charlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel cases; stresses defending free speech

Former US President Barack Obama on Thursday defended freedom of speech as a core democratic value, weighing in on the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show.“This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents,” Obama wrote on X.The 44th President also shared a New York Times opinion piece by columnist David French, a longtime defender of First Amendment rights, along with an 1860 speech by Frederick Douglass urging protection of free expression."First there’s this piece by David French, who devoted much of his legal career to defending the First Amendment rights of conservative writers and scholars," Obama wrote. "Second, it’s worth reading this excerpt from Frederick Douglass."He also accused the President Donald Trump's administration of escalating cancel culture by pressuring media companies to silence voices it disapproves of.“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama wrote.“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” he added.Earlier, in his first public comments on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the former President described it as a national “inflection point.” He said he did not know Kirk personally but called his death “horrific and a tragedy,” extending condolences to Kirk’s family.“Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy,” Obama said in an interview with journalist Steve Scully. He warned against the growing use of extreme rhetoric in politics, criticizing Trump and his aides for calling opponents “vermin” and “enemies.”“When we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we’ve got a problem,” Obama said. “We always have to fight for our democracy and for the values that made this country the envy of the world.”The controversy centered on remarks made by Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show. Kimmel said that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”His comments drew swift condemnation. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr called them “truly sick” and hinted that ABC could face regulatory consequences. Nexstar, one of ABC’s largest affiliate operators, branded the remarks “offensive and insensitive,” leading ABC to suspend Kimmel indefinitely.Charlie Kirk was shot dead on September 10 while giving a speech at Utah Valley University. Authorities have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with capital murder in connection with the killing.