By Ruairi Scott Byrne

Copyright irishmirror

Political analyst Matthew Dowd has been fired from MSNBC over comments he made on the air just minutes after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Kirk, an influential ally of US President Donald Trump who co-founded the right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA, was shot dead while speaking at a university event in Utah on Wednesday afternoon.

Trump announced the death of the 31-year-old father-of-two on social media, hailing him as a “great, and even legendary” figure who was “loved and admired by all, especially me”.

During MSNBC’s coverage of Kirk’s shooting, anchor Katy Tur asked Dowd, a long-standing political commentator, about “the environment in which a shooting like this happens.”

After emphasising that there were no details of the shooting at that time, Dowd suggested that Kirk’s rhetoric may have contributed to the violence, saying that “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions.”

“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,” 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.

“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.”

Dowd’s comments sparked a furious reaction on social media and were widely condemned, with MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler issuing an apology on Wednesday night.

“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable,” Kutler said in a statement.

“There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”

According to multiple reports, Dowd, who joined the network in 2022, has since been fired by the network over his comments, with Deadline reporting that MSNBC cut its relationship with the analyst citing “furor over remarks he made in the aftermath of the shooting”.

Dowd himself later issued an apology for his remarks.

“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 on the social media platform Bluesky.

“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.”

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