Karen Attiah says she won’t rejoin The Washington Post, which fired her over Charlie Kirk comments

WASHINGTON (AP) — Opinion writer Karen Attiah has decided not to return to her job at The Washington Post, despite winning reinstatement after her firing over social media posts about the 2025 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Attiah wrote Sunday on her Substack, “The Golden Hour by Karen Attiah,” that she reached a settlement with the Post and plans to move forward with her life and career.

“While I remain proud of the victory, I came to the painful realization that returning to The Washington Post meant coming back without the guaranteed freedom and institutional support to do what I loved: use my voice, seek truth, and serve readers,” Attiah wrote.

Attiah didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment Monday on Attiah’s decision.

At the time of her firing, Attiah was the only Black full-time member of the Post’s opinion desk.

In August, an arbitrator ordered the newspaper to reinstate Attiah, ruling that it didn’t have sufficient cause to fire her and ordering it to award her full back pay and lost benefits.

Kirk, who was white, launched the conservative Turning Point USA in 2012 and made provocative statements about race, gender and politics. He was critical of the Black Lives Matter movement on college campuses and called George Floyd, the Black man whose 2020 murder at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked protests, a “scumbag.”

Kirk, 31, also was an ally of President Donald Trump and used his popular podcast to espouse rhetoric many critics felt was racist and divisive. He was shot and killed Sept. 10, 2025, during an event at Utah Valley University.

His death elicited a torrent of comments from Trump and others about him, both pro and con.

After Kirk’s killing, Attiah made several social media posts, including “if anything, the rush to coddle violent white men is self-protective — that we know they are not used to feeling vulnerable and mortal — and will react violently out of fear. And we will all suffer.”

The Post fired Attiah in an email, accusing her of “gross misconduct.”

“Your public comments on social media regarding the death of Charlie Kirk violate the Post’s social media policies, harm the integrity of our organization, and potentially endanger the physical safety of our staff,” it wrote.

Attiah was among dozens of people from various professions who were fired over comments they made about Kirk’s assassination, which raised questions over free speech as Trump vowed retribution for remarks he considered disparaging.

The Democracy Defenders Fund and the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which represented Attiah, didn’t immediately respond to Monday messages seeking comment about Attiah’s decision not to return to the paper. At the time of the arbitrator’s ruling, they said the ruling marked a landmark moment for press freedom.