UVU drops Sharon McMahon as commencement speaker due to safety concerns

• The graduation ceremony on April 29 will no longer have a featured speaker.

Zoom in: The partisan criticism of McMahon focused on remarks she made on social media about MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk shortly after he was assassinated on the UVU campus last September.

• In a since-deleted post that angered Republicans, McMahon called Kirk's death "horrific" but said many marginalized Americans did not see him as engaging in "good-faith debates."
• In a Tuesday statement to Axios, a spokesperson for McMahon said she "unequivocally condemned" Kirk's killing, emphasizing that violence has no place in public discourse.

Catch up quick: A growing chrous of conservatives, including most of Utah's congressional delegation and Turning Point USA (the organization founded by Kirk) called on the university to drop McMahon in recent days.

• Right-leaning news outlets like Fox News and the New York Post also criticized UVU's selection of McMahon, who has previously spoken on campus.

What we're watching: The university was already under immense pressure for its handling of campus security at Kirk's rally and this decision could spark additional criticism from free speech advocates.