Matthew Dowd has reportedly been fired from MSNBC after his on-air comments about Charlie Kirk.
Multiple outlets including Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported that the network fired Dowd, 64, after his comments on Wednesday, September 10.
Us Weekly reached out to MSNBC for comment.
While covering Kirk’s shooting on Wednesday, anchor Katy Tur asked Dowd about “the environment in which a shooting like this happens.”
Dowd replied, “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. And I think that is the environment we are in. 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.”
In the wake of Dowd’s comments, MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler shared an apology and called his comments “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.”
“We apologize for his statements, as has he,” Kutler said in a statement shared via the MSNBC Public Relations X account. “There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
Dowd, for his part, addressed his comments via X. “My thoughts & prayers are w/ the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. On an earlier appearance on MSNBC I was asked a question on the environment we are in,” he wrote. “I apologize for my tone and words.”
He continued, “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.”
News broke on Wednesday that the controversial conservative commentator was shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. It was reported that “a single shot” was fired on campus from around 200 yards away. Kirk was taken to the hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we, the Turning Point USA leadership team, write to notify you that early this afternoon, Charlie went to his eternal reward with Jesus Christ in Heaven,” Kirk’s nonprofit organization, Turning Point USA, shared in a note to employees and supporters, according to CNN.
Kirk is survived by wife Erika Frantzve and their two children.
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