George Abaraonye, who was forced out at the Oxford Union for cheering when Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was shot, has issued an apology to the family, the UK Daily Mail reported. Abaraonye was elected president of Oxford University's student-led publication but lost the position after remarks he made in a WhatsApp group of Union colleagues about Kirk's death.
Kirk was gunned down while speaking at a Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah, on September 10. This fact should have outraged Abaraonye as both a college student and a member of the press, but instead, he reserved his ire for the dead activist.
In a chat with other students who worked on the publication, Abaraonye said, "Charlie Kirk got shot, let's f****** go." He echoed those same sentiments on Instagram, and his words carried much more weight as Abaraonye had previously met Kirk and debated him on behalf of the Oxford Union.
However, Abaraonye is now walking back those remarks. "I had very little context for what I was reacting to, but I wanted to start a conversation… I missed the mark… and that's why I deleted and retracted my comments," he claimed.
Perhaps losing his prominent position has truly caused a change of heart for Abaraonye. "I want to offer my apologies and my condolences," he said, now singing a completely different tune after suffering the effects of making such heinous remarks.
"No one deserves to lose a husband, no child deserves to grow up without a father. I hope that they are able, in some capacity, to move on from what was a tragic event, and to that end, I am very sorry," Abaraonye added.
Despite the fact that the whole world witnessed the gruesome death the day it happened, Abaraonye pretended he was unaware of the severity of the event and only later, upon reflection, realized how disgusting he was for sayingwhat he did. "I reacted without nuance and without having done research," he claimed in an interview.
"I saw a headline, and I reacted. I didn’t take into account the nuance or consider that at all when I made the comments," he added. However, the timing seems to suggest it came only after he suffered the real, much-deserved consequences for saying such a thing.
Abaraonye was first slapped with a motion of no confidence in his presidency. What followed was a vote plagued by claims of "obstruction, intimidation and unwarranted hostility" that ultimately ended with 1,200 members voting to remove him.
After the remarks about Kirk, other clips began to resurface, shedding more light on the motivations Abaraonye had for cheering Kirk's death, Fox News reported. One of those included a clip of Abaraonye speaking about the necessity of political violence.
"At times, there is simply nothing else that can be required except for violent retaliation. And this is a view I wholeheartedly agree with; the view that some institutions are too broken, too oppressive to be reformed, like cancers of our society," Abaraonye claimed.
"And they must, and they should be taken by any means necessary," he added. This only adds to the sense that Abaraonye holds radical views that were only problematic for him once he suffered the consequences of sharing them in the wake of Kirk's death.
"They should - and they must - be taken down, by any means necessary. They are cancers in society!"
George Abaraonye, the new president of @OxfordUnion, flagrantly promotes political violence.
It comes after he celebrated Charlie Kirk's execution. pic.twitter.com/ivJjfWS7hs
— Peter Lloyd (@Suffragent_) September 12, 2025
Reactions like this are a good litmus test for people in the media and in power. Regardless of a man's political opinions, his assassination is not something to be celebrated, especially as his widow and their children are just coming to grips with the reality of such a loss. Anyone who finds this a time to celebrate deserves to lose his positions of power and prominence.
