What exact words did Charlie Kirk say about Michelle Obama and when did he say them?
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Executive summary
Charlie Kirk said in a July 13, 2023 episode of his show that specific Black public figures — Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson — were “affirmative-action picks” and that they “had to go steal a white person’s slot,” a line widely excerpted as “you have to go steal a white person’s slot” [1]. Several outlets and fact-checkers note that some later reporting misquoted or generalized that remark as an insult to “Black women” broadly; the Financial Times published a correction that Kirk had been referring to several named women rather than all Black women [2].
1. What Charlie Kirk actually said and when — the primary citation
The closest primary sourcing in contemporary reporting traces the remark to a July 13, 2023 episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” in which Kirk named four Black women — Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson — and argued they were beneficiaries of affirmative-action-like advantages, saying words to the effect that they “had to go steal a white person’s slot” and suggesting they lacked the “brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously” [1]. Multiple outlets and the Snopes fact-check locate the segment and quote the language from that July 13, 2023 episode [1].
2. How the words were amplified and later summarized by others
After Kirk’s September 2025 assassination, clips and paraphrases of that 2023 segment spread widely on social media and in news coverage. Some posts and articles condensed his remarks into broader, sweeping quotes — for example, reporting that “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously” — which several publications later acknowledged was an inaccurate generalization of his remarks about named individuals [2]. Snopes and NDTV explain that the original clip targeted specific public figures rather than all Black women, and that some later posts misquoted or misinterpreted his words [1] [3].
3. Corrections and fact-checks: what outlets say about overreach
The Financial Times issued a correction after initial coverage that reported Kirk had said “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously,” clarifying that his comment referred to specific named women, not Black women as a group [2]. Snopes recorded and timestamped the July 13, 2023 episode segment to show the context and precise wording, reinforcing that the line was about those four figures and affirmative-action claims [1]. NDTV’s reporting likewise emphasizes that some social posts misrepresented the scope of Kirk’s claim [3].
4. Broader context: how others — including Barack Obama — responded
The resurfacing of Kirk’s 2023 remarks prompted public responses. Former President Barack Obama publicly condemned political violence after Kirk’s death and said Kirk’s ideas were “wrong,” specifically addressing the resurfaced comments about Michelle Obama while offering condolences — noting that he and his wife were praying for Kirk’s family and that “this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy” [4] [5]. Outlets such as TheGrio and Vibe stressed that Obama focused on the societal implications while rejecting Kirk’s prior attacks [5] [6].
5. Diverging interpretations and implications for public debate
Reporting shows two competing readings: one stresses that Kirk directed the insult at named individuals and therefore was misquoted when the language was broadened to target all Black women [2] [3]; the other frames the original lines as explicitly racist and sexist attacks on prominent Black women that fit a pattern of incendiary rhetoric in Kirk’s public record [7] [8]. Both readings are documented in the sources: fact-checkers note the misquote, while opinion pieces and obituaries catalog Kirk’s history of “incendiary and often racist and sexist comments” [7] [8].
Limitations: available sources do not mention a verbatim, single-sentence transcript that exactly matches the widely circulated generalized quote “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously”; instead, sources point to the July 13, 2023 episode and provide paraphrases and clips [1] [2].