Sam Ponder said she received a flood of “disturbing” direct messages after posting condolences for Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was fatally shot at a campus event this week.
Ponder, a former ESPN personality, posted on X that she mourned Kirk’s family and said the country should find “the courage to lovingly speak the truth boldly in the public square.” Two days after that post, she said on Saturday that her direct messages had become “more disturbing than ever,” and shared an extended comment about the expectations some social-media users place on public figures.
“Apparently only perfect people can be mourned when they’re murdered in their 30s with a wife and young children,” Ponder wrote. “When a man is shot, debating opinions with anyone for all to see, he must align with our chosen dogma perfectly. If not, he had it coming/shouldn’t have said those mean things, so you should shut up about it. How can we see someone post about sadness over the death of ANYONE they cared about, even someone we think was flawed, and say ‘Stop being sad about them. I didn’t like their opinions.’ Mourn with those who mourn. If I ever see hypocrisy, let me see it in myself. God forbid every word we’ve ever spoken be the prerequisite for sympathy when we die.”
Kirk, 31, founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. His death prompted an immediate outpouring of reaction across politics and the sports world, including condemnations of the shooting and tributes at sporting events.
Athletes and teams responded in the hours after the fatal incident. New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart criticized the shooting, the New York Yankees observed a moment of silence, and multiple NFL home teams paid tribute over the weekend after the Green Bay Packers first acknowledged Kirk on Thursday night. The aftermath also included personnel consequences: a Carolina Panthers staffer was dismissed and a member of the board for a charity associated with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was removed following controversial social-media posts about Kirk.
Ponder, who spent 13 years at ESPN before her departure in 2024, is among several public figures whose online comments about Kirk have drawn hostile responses. She said the messages she received after her post were unusually vitriolic and framed the reaction as part of a broader tension over how people should respond to the death of public figures whose views they oppose.
The shooting at Utah Valley University has intensified debate over political violence, free speech and the tone of public discourse. Investigations into the circumstances of the shooting are ongoing, and public figures from across the political spectrum have called for accountability. The incident has also prompted institutions, including sports organizations and media outlets, to confront staff and affiliates whose online reactions were viewed as inappropriate or inflammatory.
Ponder’s comments and the reactions they generated underscore how quickly expressions of condolence on social media can become focal points in larger cultural and political disputes. She framed her remarks as a call for empathy, writing that mourning someone’s death should not require agreement with that person’s entire public record.