Former President Barack Obama commented on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during remarks Tuesday night in Erie, Pennsylvania, saying that “regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy.”

“Look, obviously I didn’t know Charlie Kirk,” Obama said, according to a transcript his office released to CNN. “I was generally aware of some of his ideas. I think those ideas were wrong, but that doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family.”

Obama went on, “He’s a young man with two small children and a wife who obviously – and a huge number of friends and supporters who cared about him. And so, we have to extend grace to people during their period of mourning and shock.”

Obama was the featured speaker at an event for the Jefferson Educational Society, an Erie-based nonprofit organization, and he spoke at length about concerns over escalating political violence in recent years, saying the country is at an “inflection point.”