Samantha Ponder, a former ESPN host, explained to Kayleigh McEnany of Fox News the vicious “backlash” she faced for posting a video of Charlie Kirk after his tragic assassination. Speaking to the reporter, she noted how she lost thousands of followers and received threatening messages after she posted a clip of Kirk with his wife and two children,
For context, Ponder spent some time discussing whether social media algorithms were promoting positive reactions to the slaying by fueling outrage, expressing shock at the division over mourning the murder of a father.
In any case, Ponder began her comments by expressing her shock. “The strange thing is, I didn’t really say much. I reposted a video of his family just because I thought it was so relatable to see because he’s a dad,” the former ESPN host said.
Building on this point, she addresses the inhumanity of these comments, explaining, “You forget when you watch people on TV sometimes that this is just a dad who is a husband and has these little kids. So, I reposted a video of their family on vacation, and I immediately lost thousands of followers – and who cares? This is not about me.”
Describing the reaction, Ponder decried the vicious messages. “But it was more about seeing what’s going on in our country right now, and I got just vicious messages, which any of us who have worked in TV get all the time. I’m used to that,” she clarified.
Concluding her comments, she noted, “But it was in response to something that I thought we could all agree on – man, it’s sad when someone’s murdered. I thought that was just something the general public could agree on.” Additionally, the blame was placed on “social media algorithms that were feeding people a specific narrative and generating outrage.”
Ponder was far from the only media figure to mourn the loss of Kirk. As we reported, Kat Timpf, battling breast cancer, returned to “Gutfeld!” to mourn Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”I knew Charlie as a human, my husband and I have met his wife. I cannot stop thinking about her. I cannot stop thinking about those kids. I just had a kid. I cannot imagine losing my husband, my child’s father. I can’t imagine going through life without him by my side, and having to raise my kids without him, and she has to now go through everything without him, and those kids have to go through life without their father,” she stated.
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Bringing her comments to a close, the new mother painted a dim portrait of society, saying, “And honestly, for what, for what like, who wins here? I mean, even if the idea is to silence his ideas, that didn’t work, because this only amplifies his ideas even further. And finally, I do have to say the evil that that that killed him, and the school of thought that teaches people that being on the opposite side of a political issue means you don’t need to be seen as a human being. I’ve had enough of this. It has been so so bad for us as a society, even before this, and it’s going to keep getting worse and worse and worse.”