Have fact-checkers or transcripts verified the exact wording of Charlie Kirk's statement about Michelle Obama?
Executive summary
The claim that Charlie Kirk said “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously” was widely circulated after his death, but media corrections and fact‑checks show that line was a misquote of a longer, targeted comment he made about specific public figures; transcript/audio of a July 13, 2023 broadcast exists and fact‑checkers have used it to verify his actual phrasing and context [1] [2] [3]. Major fact‑check organizations and news outlets report that while Kirk did make demeaning remarks about certain Black women and framed them as “affirmative‑action picks,” some summaries online compressed or altered his wording, prompting corrections [2] [1] [3].
1. The misquote that spread and the correction that followed
An article that quoted Kirk as saying “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously” was corrected after publication, with the Financial Times noting the line had been misattributed as a broad statement about all Black women when Kirk was referring to particular figures including Michelle Obama and others [1]. That correction establishes that at least one prominent outlet acknowledged an overbroad paraphrase that shifted the target from named individuals to an entire demographic group [1].
2. What fact‑checkers actually found in the audio/transcript
Fact‑checking organizations located the primary source: an archived episode of The Charlie Kirk Show from July 13, 2023, which begins the relevant segment at about 53:45, and Snopes transcribed and cited Kirk’s remark that Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were “affirmative‑action picks” and that admitting this could be read as a confession that they “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken seriously” [2]. Independent reviewers and outlets similarly reported that Kirk said such words about specific women and that he added language about having to “steal a white person’s slot” to be taken seriously, language that some posts circulated without full context [4] [5].
3. Nuance, context and disputes over presentation
FactCheck.org and other outlets warned that while many of Kirk’s statements were accurately recorded, social media and some summaries misrepresented or stripped context from his remarks, including imputations that he insulted all Black women or used additional slurs that he did not clearly utter; FactCheck.org noted that some viral posts “got what Kirk said wrong” even as he did not dispute portions of the reporting when contacted [3]. The reporting therefore draws a distinction between the verified, targeted comments in the July 2023 episode and later, broader paraphrases that amplified or altered the wording for rhetorical effect [3] [2].
4. What can be concluded — and what remains constrained by available reporting
The strongest available public evidence — archived audio/transcript of the July 13, 2023 show as cited by Snopes and corroborated in subsequent fact‑checks — verifies that Kirk used the specific phrasing about certain named Black women being “affirmative‑action picks” and saying they “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously,” and that he invoked the idea of “stealing a white person’s slot” [2] [4] [5]. At the same time, major outlets corrected blanket attributions that turned his targeted insult into an alleged attack on all Black women, and fact‑checkers cautioned that some viral posts still misstate or exaggerate additional language or context [1] [3]. This account is based on the cited fact‑checks and archived broadcast reporting; if other raw audio or transcripts exist beyond those sources, they are not referenced in the materials reviewed here [2] [3].