Charlie Kirk death: Simplicity managing director faces backlash over post about activist’s shooting

The co-founder and managing director of KiwiSaver provider Simplicity has faced backlash over a post he made about the death of US political activist Charlie Kirk.

Sam Stubbs said in a now-deleted LinkedIn post on Saturday: “We should mourn the violence, but not the man. And we certainly cannot eulogise a racist, sexist and bigot.

“RIP Charlie Kirk. I wish your ideas had died with you.”

Kirk, a controversial conservative activist, was shot dead during a university visit in Utah last week.

Stubbs told the Herald that a few minutes after he made the post, he realised it was poorly worded and didn’t get across his message in the right way.

He said the language wasn’t appropriate and could be misinterpreted.

“I certainly wasn’t intending to celebrate his death, absolutely not.

“Murder is murder. It always is and it’s always wrong.”

Simplicity co-founder Sam Stubbs has apologised for his now-deleted post about Charlie Kirk's death. Photo / Supplied

Despite deleting the post shortly after it was made, screenshots of it were sent around, causing Stubbs to face backlash.

Israel Institute of New Zealand director Ashley Church was one of the critics.

Church’s post on LinkedIn said that labelling Kirk as racist, bigoted, or sexist was the critique of someone who had not consumed his content or who needed to review their value system.

A post Ashley Church made criticising Sam Stubbs' original post about Charlie Kirk.

Stubbs made a post correcting his position the next day, in which he apologised for any offence caused.

Stubbs said he wanted to clarify that, although he found Kirk’s views on many topics objectionable, he did not believe his murder was deserved or should be celebrated.

Sam Stubbs' clarification post made on LinkedIn.

Some of the replies criticised Stubbs’ stance regardless of the apology, while others applauded that he took accountability for the mistake.

“My family are switching KiwiSaver and investments. Your comments about Charlie do not align with us. What a shame you had to post before thinking,” one comment said.

Between 50-80 people had got in touch with Stubbs over the post, with most concerned about the nature of it, he said.

Stubbs has dealt with the complaints sent to him directly, he said.

“Some of them have come through our customer inquiry centre, so our team has sent out my apology and clarification.”

A handful of people have said they would switch KiwiSaver providers over the incident, he said.

Stubbs said his personal views were separate from Simplicity, and he was speaking as an individual.

“As I’m one of the founders of Simplicity, people associate me with it and they assume that my personal views are those of the firm, which they aren’t.”