MSNBC has sparked outrage for its ‘disgusting’ and ‘shameful’ on-air comments while covering the fatal shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah.
Kirk, who amassed a huge following for his fiery debates on university campuses, was assassinated in broad daylight mid-speech on Wednesday afternoon.
Reporting on the situation in real time, host Katy Tur called Kirk ‘divisive’ and ‘polarizing’ while political analyst Matthew Dowd suggested that the gunshot could have been fired by one of Kirk’s supporters.
‘[W]e don’t know any of the full details of this yet,’ Dowd said.
‘We don’t know if this is a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration or… So we have no idea about this.’
He also echoed Tur, calling Kirk ‘one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures… 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.’
Critics were quick to bash both journalists, as footage circulating online appeared to show Kirk shot fatally struck in the neck at Utah Valley University in Orem.
‘That’s disgusting. Put your politics aside and have some humanity. Charlie is a person, a husband and father,’ one person wrote on X in response to the clip.
‘Man, it’s tragic. It’s crazy how MSNBC will just say “whoopsie” and sweep this under the rug like they always do,’ another added.
‘Shameful. Embarrassing for anybody who’s ever worked in the media,’ a third said.
Even Barstool Sport owner Dave Portnoy waded into the controversial comments.
‘Hey @MSNBC, I’m gonna go ahead and rule out that it was one of Charlie Kirk’s supporters that accidentally shot him with a celebratory gun shot,’ he wrote on X.
Dowd released an apology on Blue Sky.
‘My thoughts & prayers are w/ the family and friends of Charlie Kirk,’ he wrote.
‘On an earlier appearance on MSNBC I was asked a question on the environment we are in.
‘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.’
MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler responded by 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.’
Donald Trump, around 5pm on Truth Social, confirmed Kirk was killed. The gunman, as of writing, remains at large.
‘The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,’ Trump wrote. ‘No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.
‘He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!’
Kirk, 31, had a security detail with him when he was shot.
He leaves behind a wife and two children.
The Daily Mail has reached out to MSNBC for comment.
Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika Frantzve, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a son, 16 months. The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.
The president has ordered all American flags to be lowered to half-staff until Sunday evening at 6pm EST in honor of Kirk.
The MAGA star, wearing a white t-shirt, was sitting inside a tented gazebo when a bullet entered his neck, causing his head to violently collapse backwards.
Screams were heard across the crowd of young people as those closest to Kirk rushed to his aid.
UVU officials said the shot was fired from the top of the Losee Center, about 200 feet away from where Kirk was sitting on the college campus.
They initially took an elderly man into custody who turned out not to be the shooter, police said.
Sophie Anderson, 45, who was standing 100 feet from the stage when the shooting happened, told Daily Mail that she almost got trampled as she ran off into the food court, where she hid in a closet.
’The second it happened, I knew it was a gunshot,’ said Anderson, who was joined at the event by her boss Phil Lyman, a former Utah state representative who was handing out hats on stage with Kirk just five minutes earlier.
’He was shot in the neck and just fell over and he was just a fountain of blood,’ she said. ‘They carried him off. All these kids are just falling apart and bawling.’
Utah Valley University evacuated the campus after the shooting and canceled classes until further notice.
The event was the first in Kirk’s ‘Great American Comeback Tour.’
