Stephen King has repeatedly apologized for a false accusation he made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at a college campus in Utah on Sept. 10.

"The Long Walk" author claimed in a now-deleted X post that the 31-year-old political commentator previously advocated for the act of throwing stones to kill gay people. He later retracted the statement and expressed regret for taking a comment Kirk made on his podcast last year out of context.

In 2024, Kirk criticized children's YouTuber Ms. Rachel for arguing that the bible verse "love thy neighbor" in the Leviticus 18 scripture should apply to gay people. On the podcast, Kirk said: "by the way, Ms. Rachel, you might want to crack open that Bible of yours. In a lesser reference, part of the same part of scripture, is in Leviticus 18, is that ‘thou shall lay with another man shall be stoned to death.' Just saying."

"I apologize for saying Charlie Kirk advocated stoning gays. What he actually demonstrated was how some people cherry-pick Biblical passages," King wrote on X on Sept. 12.

Among those who condemned King's initial post was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who responded to the post calling the "It" writer a "horrible, evil, twisted liar."

"The horrible, evil, twisted liar apologizes," King replied. "This is what I get for reading something on Twitter (without) fact-checking. Won't happen again."

Cruz later responded on X adding that he appreciates King' apologizing and deleting the post.

"All of us — on both sides of the aisle — should treat each other with respect & decency, even if we disagree on politics," Cruz wrote. "Charlie did that every day, and I admired him for it."

King repeatedly apologized in three other X posts in response to criticisms including one from biologist Colin Wright who wrote "it's exactly this kind of extreme rhetoric that encourages people to commit violence."

The apology come after President Donald Trump blamed rhetoric for Kirk's death in video-taped remarks released on Sept. 10. He said the "radical left" were "directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today."

TV host Jimmy Kimmel condemed Trump for blaming Democrats for their rhetoric instead of trying to bring Americans together after tragedy.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Won't happen again': Stephen King apologizes for claim about Charlie Kirk

Reporting by Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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