Charles Barkley is regretting something he said to Axios reporter Alexi McCammond this week. McCammond was in Atlanta covering the Democratic presidential debate and she was talking to Barkley about his support for former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg as they were both running for the Democratic nomination for president. Barkley said to McCammond, “I don’t hit women, but if I did, I would hit you.”
McCammond shared the story, writing on Twitter, “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.’”
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McCammond went on to write that it was something that was off the record, but she felt like she had to speak out on this issue. She stated, “There are almost no times I will break 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.”
Turner Sports released a statement on behalf of Barkley in which he apologized. He said, “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.”
McCammond wasn’t too happy with the apology as she wrote on Twitter, “The comments Charles Barkley made to me are not acceptable. Threats of violence are not a joke, & no person deserves to be hit or threatened like that. Silence only allows the culture of misogyny to fester. And those kinds of comments don’t merit off-the-record protections.”
NBA on TNT had been on for decades now, and a number of fans now look back at her old tweets, calling her a “hypocrite” based on what she has tweeted in the past about race and violence.
Turner Sports has not mentioned any type of punishment for Barkley who is an analyst on the show Inside the NBA.
