Jemele Hill reportedly deleted a social media post in which she suggested that Charlie Kirk’s assassination was the result of a “white supremacist gang hit.”
Hill, the controversial former ESPN personality who currently writes for The Atlantic magazine, recently reacted on Bluesky to an interview granted by a Boston University professor to the Los Angeles Times.
“The LA Times spoke with an expert (imagine that!) about the markings on the killer’s bullet casings and turns out … Charlie Kirk likely was the victim of a white supremacist gang hit. Well, well, well,” Hill wrote in the now-deleted Bluesky post.
Chuck Ross, a reporter with the Washington Free Beacon, was the first to call attention to Hill’s deletion on Tuesday afternoon.
“The Atlantic’s @jemelehill deleted her Bluesky post where she said Charlie Kirk’s assassination was carried out by a white supremacist gang.”
Ross noted that Hill cited “disinformation expert” Joan Donovan, who “should now be shunned by the media,” he wrote on X.
Kirk was gunned down while talking with college students on the campus of a university in Utah last Wednesday.
Prosecutors have filed charges against the alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Prosecutors said Robinson, who is reported to have been in a relationship with a transgender roommate, confessed to the shooting in private messages.
“I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” Robinson is alleged to have written.
Robinson is alleged to have said he killed Kirk because he believed Kirk “spreads too much hate” and later stated, “Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
As of Wednesday, no evidence has surfaced linking Robinson to white supremacists.
Hill sparked anger following Kirk’s killing. On her podcast, she denounced Kirk as a “white supremacist” whose “entire purpose” in life was discriminate against “people who were not straight white Christian men.”
“I’m tired of white supremacist beliefs being considered a difference of opinion. I’m really sick of that!” Hill said on her “Spolitics” podcast on Tuesday.
“As I’m paying attention to how people are talking about and memorializing Charlie Kirk, I’m insulted by the fact that they think his beliefs are just about a difference of opinion. I can live with a difference of opinion.”
Hill added: “‘Oh, I think because you’re black that you don’t deserve the same treatment.’ Uh-uh! Uh-uh! Got to stop you right there.”
Hill cited quotes from Kirk in which he criticized the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as an “awful” individual and lamented the “significant error” made by enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
Kirk was also a fierce opponent of affirmative action and criticized Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling her a “diversity hire” and claiming she lacked qualifications for her role. Last year, Kirk was quoted as saying that whenever he saw a black pilot, he thought to himself, “Boy, I hope’s qualified.”
Hill’s comments sparked backlash. Jason Cohen wrote on X that she went on a “disturbing rant.”
Another X user, Bobby Burack, responded to Hill by asking why she praised the late basketball superstar Kobe Bryant while “discount[ing] the credible rape allegations against him” and “ignored his homophobic comments.” Burack posted a screenshot of an Atlantic article that Hill penned about Bryant.
Donovan generated headlines in late 2023 after she claimed she was pushed out of her post at Harvard for sounding the alarm on “digital harms” caused by Facebook and Instagram after the school received a large donation from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The Post has sought comment from Hill and Donovan.
In the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, left-wing activists online began circulating the theory that Robinson was linked to the far-right “groyper” movement, a white nationalist faction known for their trolling tactics and hostility toward mainstream conservatives like Kirk.
However, prosecutors say Robinson was a lone actor whose motivation stemmed from hardening left-wing, pro-LGBTQ views and animus toward Kirk.
Hill, a veteran sportswriter and frequent political commentator, has been at the center of several high-profile controversies since emerging as a nationally known figure on Disney-owned ESPN nearly two decades ago.
In September 2017, Hill, who is black, tweeted that President Trump was “a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists” and “the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime.”
The Twitter post sparked an immediate backlash from conservative media and Trump himself demanded an apology. The network distanced itself by calling her comments inappropriate.
Hill, however, refused to back down, later saying she felt like she was simply stating that “water is wet.”
Weeks later, Hill drew fire again when Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones threatened to bench players who knelt during the national anthem.
Hill urged fans to boycott team advertisers rather than placing the burden on players, especially black athletes.
ESPN, a television partner of the National Football League, suspended her for two weeks for violating its social media guidelines.
By 2018, Hill left ESPN. She joined The Atlantic that same year.
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