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The Sacramento Bee issued an apology after a column falsely claimed Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has called for the "lynching of trans people."
Ahead of Kirk's visit to the University of California Davis for a speaking engagement on Tuesday, which was bombarded by violent demonstrators, Bee opinion writer Hannah Holzer penned a piece titled "Another fascist is coming to UC Davis. How should the community respond?"
Holzer described Kirk as a "vocal transphobe and Donald Trump fanatic" who has "turned controversy into money for years."
"Among his most atrocious comments, Kirk suggested transgender people, who he has referred to as ‘garbage,’ ought to be lynched," Holzer wrote.
Holzer linked to a tweet from an activist who leveled the same charge against Kirk based on a video clip from his show saying "someone should have took care of it the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s."
Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, threatened legal action against the Sacramento Bee over a false claim it published. (Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Bee echoed Holzer's sentiment on social media while promoting the piece, tweeting, "Charlie Kirk has called for the lynching of trans people, a comment that should warrant the cancellation of his speaking engagement at UC Davis."
Kirk blasted the piece on social media and threatened to take legal action against the liberal California paper.
"This is defamation and libel. We will sue unless it is corrected," Kirk tweeted. "Left wing rags like the SacBee are allowed to platform lies against conservatives and get away with it. Time for lawfare."
Kirk challenged the out-of-context clip, explaining that his guest, female college swimmer Riley Gaines, had spoken about how trans swimmer Lia Thomas had exposed male genitalia in front of women in the locker room and that his callback to the older era was referring how "local law enforcement would have interceded" if such an incident took place back then.
The Sacramento Bee was forced to make changes to a column attacking Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The next day, the Bee scrubbed the "lynching" line from the opinion piece and included a lengthy editor's note.
"An earlier version of this column included a statement that Charlie Kirk had ‘called for the lynching of trans people,’" the Bee wrote. "The basis for this accusation is a video clip in which Kirk was upset that a trans woman had won an NCAA swimming championship. In the clip, Kirk said that instead of letting the woman compete, ‘Someone should have took (sic) care of it the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s.’"
"Some trans advocates on social media extrapolated from Kirk’s comments that he called for trans people to be lynched - an accusation The Bee repeated," the Bee continued. "But a review of the video shows that Kirk never advocated for trans people to be lynched. In fact, he strongly denies the accusation. These notes have been added to the column. The Bee regrets its comments and we apologize for any misunderstanding this earlier version may have caused."
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That section of the piece now includes Kirk's full quote, adding "Some trans activists wondered if Kirk was referring to potential violence associated with mid-century America, but he strongly denied this on Twitter."
The headline was also changed to refer to Kirk as "another far-right speaker" instead of a "fascist speaker" and deleted the "lynching" tweet.
Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA are frequently the targets of vicious attacks by the liberal media. ( Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images)
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This isn't the first time the liberal media targeted Kirk and Turning Point USA. In January, MSNBC was forced to edit a column after it referred to the prominent conservative group as a "MAGA white supremacist cult."
Last July, "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg falsely accused the group of "letting in" neo-Nazis, who showed up outside to protest its Student Action Summit event.
Following a cease-and-desist letter sent to ABC News, "The View" was forced to issue multiple on-air retractions and apologies.