Ousted University Student President-Elect Apologizes to Charlie Kirk’s Family After Cheering Assassination

Ousted Oxford Union president-elect George Abaraonye, forced from office over comments that appeared to celebrate the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, issued a formal apology to the murdered conservative activist’s family on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) student was issued a vote of no confidence last month after messages emerged from a Union WhatsApp group in which he wrote: “Charlie got shot, let’s f*cking go,” shortly after Kirk was killed while speaking on stage at Utah Valley University on September 10. He also posted on Instagram: “Charlie Kirk got shot loool.”

As news emerged that Kirk had been killed, the remarks — sent just months after the pair had faced off in an Oxford Union debate on marriage, abortion and masculinity — sparked fury across the Atlantic and swift public distancing from the Union itself, which said it “unequivocally condemns the reported words and sentiments expressed by the President-Elect.”

Abaraonye told The Times he made the comments before he had “very little context for what [he] was reacting to” and apologized again on Friday, addressing his remarks to Kirk’s widow Erika and their two children.

“I want to offer my apologies and my condolences,” he told the newspaper. “No one deserves to lose a husband, no child deserves to grow up without a father… I am very sorry.”

In a further interview with British outlet LBC, Abaraonye told host Lewis Goodall that he “accepted fair criticism” of his remarks but added that he’d “received threats of violence” as a result of his actions.

“We can also be fair in calling out what has also been a lot of just racist and classist vitriol based on the fact that I am a Black person, the fact that I’m a student at Oxford — we can be deliberate in splitting apart the two things,” he said.

He added: “I received threats of violence. My family did, my friends did and it was a very difficult time, not just for me, but also realizing that my mistake has not only impacted my life but could impact other people’s lives and impact even just broader communities around me.”

He said the torrent left him “really scared” and contributed to a mental breakdown.

Watch above via LBC.