Hall of Famer and TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley is accused of making a violent threat to Axios reporter Alexi McCammond, one he disguised as a joke.
McCammond, who covers the 2020 presidential election campaign trail, called Barkley out after he said he supports Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick, only to say he “loves” Democrat candidate Pete Buttigieg once one of his party contingents came around to approach him. Barkley did not like McCammond pointing that out in front of the guest and said:
“I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you.”
UPDATE: Barkley's employer; Turner Sports, tweeted an apology statement on his behalf:
“My comment was inappropriate and unacceptable. It was an attempted joke that wasn’t funny at all. There’s no excuse for it and I apologize.”
The reporter objected to his comment, to which Barkley responded that McCammond “couldn’t take a joke.”
Just FYI Charles Barkley told me tonight “I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you,” and then when I objected to that he told me I “couldn’t take a joke.”
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) November 20, 2019
McCammond insists she's not one to break things out when they're “off the record,” but it's likely there was no formal OTR agreement, but rather just part of a regular conversation.
There are almost no times I will beak an OTR “agreement” but this is not OK. And it was all because he came in talking about how he loves Deval Patrick and once someone from Pete‘s campaign came around he said he loved Pete and I reminded him he previously said he was a Deval fan
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) November 20, 2019
Barkley and McCammond were surrounded by others at a local Georgia convention, of which she posted a photo on her Twitter account for further proof.
Here’s a pic (albeit dark and blurry) if you need more. pic.twitter.com/Ad32cMemiv
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) November 20, 2019
This is hardly the first time that Barkley has been known to make domestic violence remarks.
In 1990, following his Philadelphia 76ers' win over the New Jersey Nets, Barkley infamously said:
Via ESPN's Steve Smith:
“This is a game that if you lose, you go home and beat your wife and kids,” he said. “Did you see my wife jumping up and down after the game? That's because she knew I wasn't going to beat her.”
A year later he spat on an 8-year-old during a game and a year after that he was featured in Nike's “I'm not a role model” campaign (h/t Tim Burke of WGA East).
Barkley has had a history of blatant disrespect for women and thus far excused it with his upbringing in the country and folklike sayings, but there is very little “joke” in ploying intimidation tactics to silence a woman for calling him out.
The former NBA star has meddled in politics before and knows very well how dirty politics can get — but threats of this sort are crossing a line that he could soon be forced to answer for.
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