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Former ESPN host Samantha Ponder opened up on the “vicious” messages she received on social media after she mourned the loss of Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
Ponder appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Saturday in America” and recalled to Kayleigh McEnany that she reshared a video of Kirk and his family on social media and thought nothing of it.
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Then-ESPN reporter Samantha Ponder watches her husband, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder (not pictured) at training camp at Blakeslee Fields, July 27, 2025. (Bruce Kluckhohn/USA TODAY Sports)
“The strange thing is I didn’t really say much. I reposted a video of his family just because I thought it was so relatable to see because he’s a dad. You forget when you watch people on TV sometimes that this is just a dad who is a husband and has these little kids,” she said. “So, I reposted a video of their family on vacation and I immediately lost thousands of followers – and who cares? This is not about me.
“But it was more about seeing what’s going on in our country right now and I got just vicious messages, which any of us who have worked in TV get all the time. I’m used to that. But it was in response to something that I thought we could all agree on – man, it’s sad when someone’s murdered. I thought that was just something the general public could agree on.”
Ponder was concerned about what people are seeing on different sides of social media as every person’s algorithm is different. She contrasted what she was seeing about Kirk and his family versus the messages she received.
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Then-ESPN reporter Samantha Ponder in attendance during the first half of the 2013 BCS Championship game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Alabama Crimson Tide at Sun Life Stadium on Jan. 7, 2013. (Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports)
“I think it said a lot about where we are as a country, but I also think it says a lot about the algorithms that we’re dealing with,” she said. “I saw so many people message me, saying ‘He was a racist. He was a bigot.’ So, I thought, ‘I didn’t know that about him. Let me do a little research. And you know what I found? I found highly edited videos of short clips where you could make anyone sound terrible all put together.
“I almost don’t blame the people who felt that way because they are being lied to. They’re being tricked. They’re not sitting and watching a long debate with Charlie Kirk. They’re seeing what their algorithm gives them. I had people saying, ‘I didn’t see anybody mourning his death.’ And I’m thinking, I’m seeing doctors, nurses, teachers, moms that were laughing about his death, his murder that we all saw.
“Those people weren’t seeing it all. So, that tells us we’re seeing two different Americas and a lot of it is because of the social media algorithm that we are all just chronically online addicted to, which is a real problem.”
Ponder was among the sports figures who spoke out about Kirk’s assassination.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA speaks during the Turning Point Action conference, July 15, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
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The 31-year-old was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson was arrested in Kirk’s death.
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