Author Stephen King has repeatedly apologized for a post in which he made the false claim that slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk had said gay people should be stoned to death.
King made the comment in response to a post by Fox News host Jesse Watters, who was praising Kirk as a patriot the day after he was fatally shot on the campus of Utah Valley University. Watters had written on X: “Charlie Kirk was not a ‘controversial’ or ‘polarizing’ man.”
King replied to the post, writing “He advocated stoning gays to death. Just sayin’.”
People outraged by the post replied with videos of Kirk speaking respectfully to gay people and excerpts of other things he said about homosexuality. (He was against same-sex marriage but said he welcomed gay people into the conservative movement.)
King’s first apology came with an edge.
Later, as outrage continued to grow, he began responding to posts critical of him (including one by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz), by apologizing again and saying he had deleted the post.
For many people, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, that wasn’t enough. Lee wrote on X that the Kirk estate should sue King for defamation.
But others said that King’s apology should be accepted, and that Kirk himself would have extended forgiveness. Earlier today, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox quoted Kirk on forgiveness at a news conference, saying “Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
The brouhaha was the second high-profile apology by a celebrity in recent weeks. On Aug. 31, Rosie O’Donnell posted a video on TikTok in which she apologized for saying that the Minneapolis church shooter was a “Republican, MAGA person” and a white supremacist.
The outcry comes at an especially bad time for King, who has been promoting today’s release of “The Long Walk,” a film based on King’s first novel, which he started writing in 1966 as a freshman at the University of Maine. Some people offended by the post began calling for a boycott of the film, noting that King has been contemptuous of some Republicans in the past, most recently calling the Trump presidency “a horror story.”
The author has previously described himself as “left of center.”