killed at a Utah Valley University show<\/a> on Wednesday in what authorities have called a political assassination.<\/p>\nGeorge Abaraonye, who became president-elect of the debating society after a vote in June, posted comments in a WhatsApp group after his death, according to the Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n
One message was reported to have said \u201cCharlie Kirk got shot, let\u2019s fucking go\u201d, while another thought to have been posted on Abaraonye\u2019s Instagram account read \u201cCharlie Kirk got shot loool\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday, the Oxford Union criticised the student\u2019s comments and said it \u201cfirmly opposes all forms of political violence and strongly stands by our commitment to free speech and considerate debate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Oxford Union would like to unequivocally condemn the reported words and sentiments expressed by its president-elect, George Abaraonye, with regards to the passing of Charlie Kirk,\u201d the society wrote on X. \u201cHis reported views do not represent the Oxford Union\u2019s current leadership or committee\u2019s view.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current administration has, under president Moosa Harraj, no association with and is entirely independent from Mr Abaraonye\u2019s administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement added: \u201cWe would like to reiterate that our condolences lie with Charlie Kirk\u2019s family, especially his wife and young children, who are enduring such terrible grief.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Abaraonye said he had \u201creacted impulsively\u201d to the news of Kirk\u2019s shooting, and that the comments were \u201cquickly deleted\u201d after news emerged of his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose words did not reflect my values,\u201d Abaraonye added. \u201cNobody deserves to be the victim of political violence \u2026 I extend my condolences to his family and loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, my reaction was shaped by the context of Mr Kirk\u2019s own rhetoric \u2013 words that often dismissed or mocked the suffering of others. He described the deaths of American children from school shootings as an acceptable \u2018cost\u2019 of protecting gun rights. He justified the killing of civilians in Gaza, including women and children, by blaming them collectively for Hamas. He called for the retraction of the Civil Rights Act, and repeatedly spread harmful stereotypes about LGBTQ and trans communities. These were horrific and dehumanising statements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk and Abaraonye had met during a debate on toxic masculinity held by the Oxford Union in May, the Telegraph reported. Donald Trump, the US president, paid tribute to Kirk<\/a> as a \u201cmartyr for truth and freedom\u201d after the shooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oxford Union has \u201cunequivocally\u201d condemned comments apparently made by its president-elect about the fatal shooting of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-131264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}