A Washington Post columnist said on Sept. 15 that she was terminated by the newspaper over social media posts she made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Kirk, a conservative commentator, was shot and killed as he spoke at an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Karen Attiah said in a post on Substack, “Last week, the Washington Post fired me.”
Her post included a photo of her burning what appears to be a copy of the newspaper.
“In the aftermath of the horrific shootings in Utah and Colorado, I condemned America’s acceptance of political violence and criticized its ritualized responses—the hollow, cliched calls for ‘thoughts and prayers’ and ‘this is not who we are’ that normalize gun violence and absolve white perpetrators, especially, while nothing is done to curb deaths,” Attiah wrote.
In posts on the social media platform Bluesky, Attiah claimed that the United States “accepts and worships” firearms—among other comments—in the wake of Kirk’s assassination.
The Washington Post, the columnist wrote, “accused my measured Bluesky posts of being ‘unacceptable’, ‘gross misconduct’ and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues.” She denied those charges.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Washington Post for comment.
People across the United States have been fired or suspended for inflammatory comments made about Kirk’s death. That includes people who worked in the U.S. military, in the federal government, and in the health care and education sectors.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that multiple American Airlines pilots have been grounded and removed from service after making inflammatory posts about the shooting. Delta Air Lines employees have also been suspended pending investigation.
“This behavior is disgusting, and they should be fired,” Duffy said in a Sept. 13 statement on X in response to the American Airlines news.
“Any company responsible for the safety of the traveling public cannot tolerate that behavior.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times on Sept. 12 that the service was made aware of comments made by one of its agents and has placed that agent on leave.
In another instance on Sept. 13, Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner announced that a tenured faculty member had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into his comments regarding Kirk’s assassination.
“Our focus remains on our academic community’s responsibility to promote civil discourse, conduct healthy debate, and treat one another with respect,” Hasner wrote in his statement.
“This applies to all students, faculty, and staff, no matter their political leanings.”
Also on Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the suspected assassin in Kirk’s shooting, identified last week as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, held progressive political viewpoints.
A day earlier, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed that Robinson had a “leftist ideology” and previously said that the suspected assassin had etched anti-fascist writings on bullets that officials recovered.
Patel, speaking to Fox News, said that Robinson had left behind a note indicating that if he had the “opportunity to take out” Kirk, then he was “going to take it.”
Patel also confirmed that DNA evidence was found that matched a screwdriver that Robinson had allegedly used and a towel that was used to wrap the suspected murder weapon.
T.J. Muscaro contributed to this report.
