Megyn Kelly blames Obama for America’s divisions in reaction to Charlie Kirk’s murder

The conservative political commentator brought up the former president when asked about how she is handling the death of Charlie Kirk.

Many of the reactions to the fatal shooting of the right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk have made headlines but the conservative host of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Megyn Kelly, may have one of the more bizarre responses.

The right-leaning ex-Fox News host Kelly went on the conservative talk show “Paul Murray Live” this week and seemed to connect the killing of Charlie Kirk to former President Barack Obama and his era in the White House. She was answering a question about how she was handling Kirk’s death emotionally when her focus turned to the country’s first Black president.

“We haven’t felt like ourselves since Barack Obama. He was such a slick snake. This affable guy wearing good suits and looked the part and sounded the part and dressed the part. But so divisive in his messaging.”

It’s not entirely clear who Kelly is referring to when she said “we,” whether it’s the entire nation, Republicans, or conservatives. But she spoke about how

“He’s the one who started to inject race where no one had been doing it,” she said. “He’s the one who started to use his pen in the phone to shove things down our throats that we didn’t want. He’s the one who shoved through an entitlement on our healthcare and our personal doctor visits that he promised he wouldn’t mess with, and he did, really hurting people and causing massive anger and open lies.”

Kelly’s rant accused Obama of “twisting the knife” on “the racial issue” in the United States, and she said he was the reason Trump became a political figure.

“He was the antidote to the divisiveness of Barack Obama,” she said.

Kirk was murdered on Wednesday at a speaking event at the University of Utah, which was part of a larger tour called “Prove Me Wrong,” where he challenged people with liberal ideas to debate him on issues such as gun control or abortion. When responding to an audience member who asked him how many mass shooters there had been in the United States over the last ten years, he was shot in the neck and confirmed dead an hour later. Videos of the exact moment of the shooting spread rapidly on social media.

The suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was taken into police custody on Friday.

President Donald Trump ordered the United States flag to be flown at half mast at the White House and at all public buildings and grounds. Politicians, news pundits, late-night hosts, celebrities, and people on your Instagram and Facebook feeds of all political affiliations posted their tributes to the 31-year-old Kirk.

President Obama was among the many who posted about Kirk and condemned his killing. He wrote that he and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, would pray for Kirk’s family.

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 10, 2025

Kelly, like many conservative show hosts, speaks about Obama often. Just last month, she doubled down on President Trump’s accusations that the former president had committed treason by rigging the 2016 election. Obama’s camp rarely responds to commentary, but in July, a spokesperson for his team called Trump’s treason claims “a weak attempt at distraction.” And for months, Kelly has been speculating about the state of the Obamas’ marriage.