Former United States President Barack Obama has weighed in on the controversial dismissal of Ghanaian-American journalist Karen Attiah from The Washington Post.
In a post on X on Friday, September 19, 2025, Obama called the dismissal a troubling example of free speech suppression under the Trump administration.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” he wrote.
Ghanaian-American journalist fired over Charlie Kirk social media post
Karen Attiah, a prominent columnist and the last remaining full-time Black opinion writer at the Post, was sacked on September 15, 2025, following social media posts addressing political violence, race, and gun control in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination on September 10, 2025.
Attiah claimed her dismissal was a result of her quoting Kirk’s 2023 remark questioning the “brain processing power” of prominent Black women, including Michelle Obama, which the Washington Post deemed “unacceptable” and a safety risk to staff.
The Ghanaian-American, born to Ghanaian parents, had a distinguished career at the Post since 2014, notably as the founding editor of its Global Opinions section after the 2018 murder of colleague Jamal Khashoggi.
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Attiah, who labeled the Post’s accusations as baseless, has received support from the Washington Post Guild, which called her dismissal “unjust” and a violation of free speech.
Conservative voices, however, have accused her of misrepresenting Kirk’s statements, a charge she denies, insisting her posts condemned violence across the board.
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