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The former ESPN host, Samantha Ponder, opened the “vicious” messages she received on social networks after crying the loss of Charlie Kirk after her assassination.
Ponder appeared on “Saturday in America” by PK Press Club Channel and recalled to Kayleigh McENANY that she reflected a video of Kirk and her family on social networks and did not think anything.
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ESPN journalist, Samantha Ponder, looks at her husband, the quarter of the Minnesota Vikings Christian Ponder (not illustrated) at the training camp in Blakeslee Fields, on July 27, 2025. (Bruce Kluckhohn / USA TODAY SPORTS)
“What is strange is that I didn’t really say much. I republished a video of his family just because I thought it was so linked to see because he is a father. You forget when you watch people on television sometimes that it is only a father who is a husband and to these little children,” she said. “So, I republished a video of their family on vacation and I immediately lost thousands of followers – and who cares? It’s not mine.
“But it was more a question of seeing what is going on in our country at the moment and I have received vicious messages, which we have every time vicious messages, which we worked on television.
Ponder was concerned about what people see on different sides of social media, because the algorithm of each person is different. She contrasted what she saw about Kirk and her family in relation to the messages she received.
Gary Cohen does not apologize for having torn the Cubs player who jumped the game for Charlie Kirk Memorial
ESPN journalist, Samantha, is thinking about the first half of the 2013 BCS championship match between Our Lady Fighting Irish and Alabama Crimson Tide at Sun Life Stadium on January 7, 2013. (Matthew Emmons / USA TODAY SPORTS)
“I think that has said a lot about the place where we are as a country, but I also think that it speaks volumes about the algorithms we are dealing with,” she said. “I saw so many people send me a message, saying:” It was racist. He was a fanatic. “So I thought,” I didn’t know that on him.
“I hardly blame the people who felt in this way because they are lied. They are deceived. They are not seated and look at a long debate with Charlie Kirk. They see what their algorithm gives them. I had people who said:” I did not see anyone crying his death. “And I think I see doctors, nurses, teachers, mothers who laughed at his death, his murder that we have all seen.
“These people did not see everything. So that tells us that we see two different Americas and a large part of this is because of the social media algorithm that we are all simply addicted to chronic line, which is a real problem.”
Ponder was one of the sports figures that spoke of the Kirk assassination.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA Speaks during the Turning Point Action conference on July 15, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (AP photo / Lynne Sladky, file)
The 31 -year -old man was shot in an event at the University of Utah Valley. Tyler Robinson was arrested in Kirk’s death.
