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Stephen King has apologized after falsely claiming in a social media post that Charlie Kirk had “advocated stoning gays to death.”

Kirk, 31, was shot dead on Wednesday during his ‘American Comeback Tour’ at Utah Valley University. A suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested last night.

On X/Twitter, horror author King had responded to a post by Fox News host Jesse Watters that claimed that Kirk was not “controversial” or “polarizing.”

King wrote: “He advocated stoning gays to death. Just sayin’,” in a since-deleted post.

After several social media users posted evidence of Kirk speaking in support of LGBT rights, King took down his original tweet and wrote: “I apologize for saying Charlie Kirk advocated stoning gays. What he actually demonstrated was how some people cherry-pick Biblical passages.”

Senator Ted Cruz then got involved, calling King a “horrible, evil, twisted liar.”

King responded: “The horrible, evil, twisted liar apologizes. This is what I get for reading something on Twitter w/o fact-checking. Won’t happen again.”

King also replied to several other posts criticizing him, writing: “I have apologized,” “I have apologized. Charlie Kirk never advocated stoning gays to death,” and “I was wrong, and I apologize. I have deleted the post.”

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