Fired MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd claims it wasn’t his own inappropriate comments about the Charlie Kirk assassination that got him fired but the result of the liberal network caving to a “Right Wing media mob.”
“The Right Wing media mob ginned up, went after me on a plethora of platforms, and MSNBC reacted to that mob,” the analyst wrote on Substack Friday.
Dowd argued that his initial comments that ultimately appeared to blame Kirk and the conservative movement for the shooting came before it was confirmed that Kirk had been shot during his speaking appearance at a campus event in Orem, Utah Wednesday afternoon.
Dowd led off his analysis with one of the more absurd comments made on any network that day.
He told anchor Katy Tur that Kirk may have been killed by a “supporter shooting their gun off in celebration” — as if the college age attendees were acting like a bunch of drunken cowboys in a B Western.
His commentary went downhill from there, as Breitbart News reported.
“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,” Dowd told the MSNBC audience. “And I always go back to hateful thoughts, lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
MSNBC fired the analyst before the day’s end, network president Rebecca Kutler issuing an apology that his comments were “inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable.”
Dowd wrote that he’d made nearly “1,000” appearances on the network and “consistently condemned gun violence and political violence of any kind no matter where it came from.”
However, in his Friday treatise, Dowd still appeared clueless about the demeaning nature of his portrayal of the young supporters who attended the event. They were not there to fire guns “in celebration ” but to listen to Kirk take questions from the crowd, including from those with opposing opinions, in his “America Comeback” tour.
Dowd wrote:
Keep in mind when the anchor came to me to comment on the “national environment” the only thing known at the time was shots were fired and there was no reporting yet that Kirk was the target or had been shot at. I said in the moment that we needed to get the facts because we have no idea what this could be and that it could easily be someone firing a gun in the air to celebrate the event. Remember Kirk is a diehard advocate of the 2nd amendment.
I said that Kirk has been a very divisive and polarizing figure. I then added that we are in a toxic time in America, unlike every other democracy in the world, where we have a combination of divisiveness and near unlimited access to guns.
After blaming the “Right Wing media mob,” Dowd continued, “Even though most at MSNBC knew my words were being misconstrued, the timing of my words forgotten (remember I said this before anyone knew Kirk was a target), and that I apologized for any miscommunication on my part, I was terminated by the end of the day.”
The fired 64-year-old analyst said he’s not going away.
“I am getting over the shell shock of the past few days, and will turn my gaze on adventures and the journey ahead,” he wrote. “And a big part of that will be using my voice on this and other platforms to advocate for finding ways to unite our country around a common-sense vision of ideals and values.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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