Barkley pulled back on the punch threat
Charles Barkley again ripped Black people who would choose to wear a T-shirt with a former President Trump mugshot on the front of it in a rant on Wednesday night.
Barkley, the Basketball Hall of Famer-turned-political pundit, said earlier in the week he would "punch" someone in the face if he saw another Black person walking around with a Trump mugshot. He pulled back a bit on the threat, but he did hurl another insult.
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Charles Barkley looks on during Capital One's The Match IX at The Park West Palm on Feb. 26, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images for The Match)
"The point I was trying to make, no, the point I was making, I wasn’t trying to make it – when Donald Trump compares his plight with that of the Black person, that is what I had a problem with," he said.
"Now, I do wanna say this. I want to make it perfectly clear… If you’re a Black person and you wearing a Donald Trump mugshot, you are a freaking idiot. And I’m only saying ‘Freakin’ idiot because they won’t let me say what I really wanna say. But you can figure it out. It starts with an F."
He later reiterated his stance when talking with Gayle King on CNN. Barkley said he stood by his "freaking idiot" comment. King cracked that he was not going to go around "randomly attacking people in the street."
Former President Trump mug shot T-shirts are for sale at the Y-Que shop in Los Angeles on Aug. 30, 2023. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
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"Unless they had Trump sneakers on too," Barkley added.
The entire saga was in reaction to Trump’s speech in Columbia, South Carolina, on Friday.
"You know who embraced more than anybody else? The Black population," Trump told the crowd. "It’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mugshot – you know they do shirts."
Sports analyst Charles Barkley waves to fans after playing the 14th hole prior to the 2023 American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on July 13, 2023 in Stateline, Nevada. (Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
Trump has since dominated Super Tuesday on his way to a likely rematch against President Biden in the general election come November.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
