MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd has been fired following comments he made during live breaking news coverage of the Charlie Kirk shooting Wednesday.
An assassin’s bullet killed Kirk while the conservative political activist and leader spoke to a crowd at Utah Valley University.
During MSNBC’s coverage of the shooting, Dowd was asked to comment on “the environment in which a shooting like this happens.”
“He’s [Kirk] been one of the most divisive—especially divisive younger figures in this—who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups,” Dowd said. “And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
“And I think that is the environment we are in,” Dowd continued. “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 are in.”
MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler issued a public apology over Dowd’s comments.
“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable. We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise,” Kutler said.
MSNBC is not the only network to issue an apology following coverage of Kirk’s assassination.
About 30 seconds before TMZ confirmed Kirk’s death during livestream coverage of the shooting, TMZ employees could be heard cheering and celebrating in the background. Almost immediately, social media users began claiming the employees had been celebrating the news of Kirk’s death. TMZ denies its staff was doing so.
“As we were reporting the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there were some people in the back room, away from our news desk here, who were watching a car chase, and they were laughing. They were clapping. And you could hear it out here,” TMZ founder Harvey Levin said in a video apology.
The TMZ employees “were not laughing, they were not reacting that way about Charlie Kirk’s assassination,” he said before executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere chimed in, acknowledging the cheering was “horrible timing.”
Kirk, 31 and a husband and father of two young children, founded the youth political action group Turning Point USA.
