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New York Liberty player Natasha Cloud unleashed a torrent of racially-charged posts on X Friday after the identity of the suspected assassination of Charlie Kirk was revealed in Utah.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed Friday that law enforcement arrested the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Cloud deleted an X post that prompted backlash, in which she made presumptions about the alleged killer’s family’s political beliefs.
“So how y’all gone twist this? Raised in a good middle class family, dad was an officer/church leader, whole family of Republicans and gun owners [and] Trump supporters,” Cloud said in the deleted post.
Cloud left several other controversial posts remaining on her feed. One post made the unsubstantiated assertion that Robinson was a “far-right Republican.”
“Tyler Robinson and his parents were Republicans. FAR RIGHT REPUBLICANS,” Cloud wrote.
Cloud also left a post on her feed that contained a racially-charged comment about Robinson, and connected the assassination to recent threats against historically Black colleges and universities. The FBI, in a statement Thursday, said it is “aware of hoax threat calls” to HBCUs.
“So why were y’all threatening HBCU’s when it was a 22-year-old white boy from Utah who shot Charlie? Racism. Not politics. Racism. Difference in policy is you giving tax cuts to billionaires. Y’all dumb but I digress. Your hatred for other people is not politics,” Cloud wrote.
TIMELINE OF CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION
Cloud responded to a criticism of that post by another user, using more racially-charged language.
“A white boy is literally what he is. He didn’t even have facial hair. Stop being soft,” she wrote.
Journalist Jemele Hill came to Cloud’s defense after conservative influencer Jon Root responded to Cloud with criticisms.
On Wednesday, shortly after Kirk was shot, Cloud used the incident to call for tougher gun laws in a post on X.
“I AM TIIIRRREEEED,” Cloud wrote. “We need legislation surrounding our firearms. NO FAMILY deserves to lose a loved one when these are CONTROLLABLES. Your 2nd amendment was written for guns that took powder. Not military grade weapons. We’re the leading country in gun-related deaths.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the New York Liberty for a response to Cloud’s statements.
Since-deleted Facebook posts, viewed by Fox News Digital, paint a picture of Robinson’s life in Washington County, Utah, filled with family milestones, birthdays and school achievements.
Steven Dunham, director of communications for the Washington County School District, confirmed to Fox News Digital that Robinson was a student in the district from 2008 to May 2021, attending Pine View Middle School and Pine View High School.
By 2021, Robinson was shown moving into Utah State University (USU), with photos outside the Richard and Moonyeen Anderson Engineering Building.
At the time of his arrest, Robinson was a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College. In a statement, the Utah Board of Higher Education said that he is a “third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College. He briefly attended Utah State University (one semester in 2021) and received concurrent enrollment credit through Utah Tech University while in high school (2019-2021).”
Meanwhile, Cloud has been one of the WNBA’s most outspoken players over the last year.
In July, she made controversial comments about Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while speaking to reporters earlier in the week. Cloud, who has been a vocal supporter of socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, gave praise for the candidate while warning Trump against sending ICE to the city.
“Mamdani, my boy!” she told reporters following a New York Liberty practice.
She added, “If Donny wants to come down here, if ICE wants to try and come down here, that’s fine.”
“But [they’re] going to learn the hard way… New Yorkers really don’t f— around. They don’t play about one another. The don’t play about this city.”
Cloud went on to deliver a lengthy rant about her support for socialism and belief that Trump’s opposition is “getting to them.”
“I just think that it’s reckless of our president, reckless of this administration but it’s also exciting for us, the people, because that’s when you know we’re getting to them,”
In June, she seemingly reacted to the U.S. military’s strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities, writing on X, “A sad sad day,” and “Grounds for impeachment.”
In February, Cloud responded to President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate several government DEI programs.
“The systems of power are working as they always were intended to work,” Cloud told The Associated Press. “And it’s time to break down a system that has only been about White men.”
Cloud added that she believes the country is putting “money over people.”
“I understand the business aspect and I understand the human aspect,” Cloud said. “Too often this country has put the human aspect aside, and put profit and money over people.”
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Michael Ruiz and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
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