In the wake of MSNBC personality Matthew Dowd making absolutely horrific comments about Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination in Utah, the outlet faced vociferous online criticism and responded by firing the personality. Dowd had claimed, in his immediate response to the shooting, that Charlie was responsible for the shooting because of his “hateful thoughts.”
Dowd was speaking to MSNBC’s Katy Tur on her show “Katy Tur Reports” when those awful comments came, and the conversation was sparked by Tur asking, “Matthew, I’m going to bring you in on this. Talk to me about the environment. You know, we are, there are-, reports of exactly what happened are not confirmed yet. But talk to me about the environment in which a shooting like this happens.”
Responding, Dowd first suggested that what might have happened is a supporter fired a gun in celebration, saying, “Yeah. And again, I emphasize what you just emphasized, we don’t know any full details of this. We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration, so we have no idea about this.”
Continuing, Dowd then suggested that Kirk’s “hateful” words and thoughts justified his killing, saying, “But following up with what was just said, he’s 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. And I always go back to hateful thoughts, lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
Still not done, Dowd then doubled down on that, telling Tur, “And I think that’s the environment we’re in, that people just-, you can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have, and then saying these awful words, and then not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in.”
Watch Dowd here:
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As could be expected, Dowd’s comments led to immense backlash online. The Breaking 911 account, for example, said, “VILE LEFTIST SCUM: MSNBC now blaming Charlie Kirk for getting himself shot: ‘You can’t stop with these awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place.’”
Then it was announced by Variety that MSNBC had fired Dowd, an announcement that led to a great deal of online celebration. The Breaking 911 account, for example, said, “GOOD RIDDANCE: Vile piece of human scum, ‘political analyst’ Matthew Dowd, has reportedly been fired by MSNBC for his despicable, unforgivable comments moments after the cold blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
In addition to firing him, MSNBC apologized for his comments, with MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler saying, “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.”
Similarly, Dowd issued his own apology for his commentary on his BlueSky (leftist Twitter) account, writing, “I apologize for my tone and words. 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.”
Featured image credit: By nrkbeta – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrkbeta/33417980011/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122705199