Washington Post columnist says she was fired over Charlie Kirk posts

Columnist Karen Attiah says she was fired by The Washington Post last week over a series of social media posts about gun control and race in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“As a columnist, I used my voice to defend freedom and democracy, challenge power and reflect on culture and politics with honesty and conviction,” Attiah wrote in a post on Substack published Monday. “Now, I am the one being silenced — for doing my job.”

In writings on the social platform Bluesky, Attiah bemoaned that America, in her view, “accepts and worships” gun violence.

“I pointed to the familiar pattern of America shrugging off gun deaths, and giving compassion for white men who commit and espouse political violence,” she wrote in the subsequent Substack post.

“My only direct reference to Kirk was one post— his own words on record,” she said, including a screenshot of a quote in which Kirk said several prominent Black women “do not have brain processing power to be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot.”