Gayle King found herself in a position of damage control on Saturday following a controversial statement from her co-host on “King Charles,” Charles Barkley. Barkley made a threat to physically harm Black individuals wearing shirts featuring former President Donald Trump’s mugshot.
During the broadcast, King aired a clip of Trump boasting about Black people wearing shirts adorned with his mugshot before turning to Barkley for his reaction. Barkley responded with a sigh, stating, “First of all, I’m just going to say this: If I see a Black person walking around with Trump’s mugshot, I’m going to punch them in the face.
“Charles. Charles, you really can’t say that ’cause, A. you don’t mean that,” interrupted King.
Barkley shot back, “Oh, I mean that sincerely.”
“And then you will be arrested for assault, and then what?” questioned King.
“I’m gonna bail myself out and go celebrate,” Barkley responded.
After the audience laughed, King pleaded, “Don’t encourage him.”
Barkley then said that if he were at the conference where Trump delivered his remarks, he would have walked out.
“That was an insult to all Black people,” he said. “To compare Black history, where we’ve been discriminated against, to his plight– Well, first of all, he’s a billionaire, and they are prosecuting him for stuff he did wrong.”
King noted, “It’s still in the court system, Charles; we have to wait.”
“Well, some of the stuff is true,” Barkley concluded. “They did storm the Capitol. They did say that the election was stolen.”