Charles Barkley walks back comments he'd punch a Black person wearing a t-shirt of Trump's mugshot

WASHINGTON — Former NBA player and CNN host Charles Barkley walked back comments that he'd punch a Black person who would wear a t-shirt with former President Donald Trump’s mugshot on it in an interview Wednesday.

Barkley’s comments were made after Trump told attendees at the Black Conservative Federation gala last month in South Carolina that his indictments are enhancing his support with Black voters. Trump claimed it was because they’ve been badly discriminated against and view him as being discriminated against.

Barkley told his co-host Gayle King on the CNN show “King Charles” Saturday that if he sees “a Black person walking around with a Trump mugshot,” he’d punch them in the face, adding that he means that “sincerely.” Clips with his comments generated hundreds of views, and he cleared them up Wednesday night.

Trump's comments were met with fierce criticism, and several political scientists USA TODAY spoke with said the comparison between his legal woes and historic injustices faced by the Black community were inappropriate.

“Obviously I’m not gonna go around punching random strangers in the face," Barkley said. Later he added that "When Donald Trump compares his plight with that of the Black person, that is what I had a problem with,"

"Now, I do wanna say this. I want to make it perfectly clear… If you’re a Black person and you’re wearing a Donald Trump mugshot, you are a freaking idiot."

A January USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that Trump’s support among Black Americans has stayed consistently low since 2020. While other polls show Trump’s support among Black Americans has slightly increased since 2020, he's nowhere close to earning a majority of the Black vote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Charles Barkley slams Black people who wear t-shirt of Trump's mugshot