Karen Attiah, a longtime columnist and former global opinions editor at The Washington Post, has claimed that she was fired after posting what editors deemed “unacceptable” commentary in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
In a Substack column published on Monday (September 15), Attiah wrote that Post management “accused my measured Bluesky posts of being ‘unacceptable,’ ‘gross misconduct’ and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues - charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false.
“They rushed to fire me without even a conversation,” she claimed. “This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold."
Attiah joined the paper in 2014 and was a prominent voice after the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Among the posts cited in her substack was one she wrote just hours after Kirk, 31, was fatally shot during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on September 10.
“I wish I had hope for gun control and that I could believe ‘political violence has no place in this country.’ But we live in a country that accepts white children being massacred by gun violence. Not just accepts, but worships violence,” she posted.
The journalist, who noted that she had been the last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post, also resurfaced one of Kirk’s past remarks: “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.” Fact-checking outlet Snopes rated the quote, made during a 2023 podcast, as true.
In subsequent Bluesky posts, she defended her stance. “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence…is not the same as violence,” she wrote.
According to Deadline, a Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters but pointed to the outlet’s social media policy.
The journalist's firing comes amid intensifying scrutiny of Kirk’s assassination.
On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed investigators had tied suspect Tyler Robinson, 22, to the shooting through DNA.
“I can report today that the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA from the screwdriver are positively processed for the suspect in custody,” Patel said on Fox News.
The high-powered hunting rifle was found abandoned near the alleged sniper’s nest, where Robinson is accused of firing the shot that killed Kirk.
Patel said investigators also recovered a disturbing note Robinson allegedly wrote beforehand: “He claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for.”
Although the original note was destroyed, Patel said forensic recovery and interviews confirmed its content. He added that Robinson’s family told investigators he “subscribed to left-wing ideology,” though he emphasized, “My job as FBI director is not to speak to motive, it’s to speak to facts.”
Robinson, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday on charges including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, and obstruction of justice.