(LifeSiteNews) — Amid nationwide outpourings of sympathy for slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, not everyone on the political left resisted the urge to interject partisanship, with some of the most high-profile examples occurring on MSNBC.
Kirk, the head of campus outreach group Turning Point USA, was fatally shot by an unknown assailant while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University. The killer is still at large, though the FBI has released security camera images of a “person of interest” and is asking anyone who recognizes him to submit information by phone or website. Multiple outlets are reporting that ammunition the killer left behind was inscribed with messages relating to “transgender and anti-fascist ideology.”
We are asking for the public’s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
1-800-CALL-FBI
Digital media tips: https://t.co/K7maX81TjJ pic.twitter.com/ALuVkTXuDc— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 11, 2025
Newsbusters reported that, within minutes of the shooting (and long before it was known if Kirk had survived), MSNBC anchor Katy Tur opined that Kirk was a “divisive figure, polarizing, lightning rod. Whatever term you want to use.” Political analyst Allen Smith agreed that Kirk was “front and center on a lot of the more divisive social and cultural issues that have driven the MAGA movement. I mean, you talk about trans rights, a lot of issues around racial justice. He has taken the sort of contrarian, more MAGA approach to a lot of these issues and he has, you know, he’s been pretty inflammatory in his rhetoric through – throughout the years.”
Not to be outdone, political analyst Matthew Dowd (a former GOP strategist) bizarrely and baselessly speculated that the shooter could have been a “supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.” He then went on to suggest that Kirk provoked his own murder through “hate speech.”
“And I always go back to, hateful thoughts, lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions,” he said. “And I think that’s the environment we’re in that, that people just you can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place and that’s the unfortunate environment we’re in.”
Variety reported that Dowd later “apologize(d) for my tone and words,” saying, “Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack. Let us all come together and condemn violence of any kind.” MSNBC’s public relations office issued an apology as well, and network president Rebecca Kutler disavowed his remarks as “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.” Dowd was fired as well. Tur and Smith’s remarks were not mentioned.
The White House has reportedly dispatched Vice President JD Vance and his family to comfort Kirk’s family in Salt Lake City and allowed the use of Air Force Two to transport his casket. President Donald Trump has also announced he will posthumously award the conservative activist with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors.
