Every time you think the commentariat left can’t stoop any lower, one of them steps up and proves you wrong, and that was certainly the case with former Bush-Cheney Republican turned failed Texas Democrat Lt. Gov candidate Matthew Dowd earlier this week.
As Legal Insurrection reported, Dowd was doing a segment with MSNBC anchor Katy Tur on Wednesday, amid news breaking that conservative icon Charlie Kirk had been shot at an outdoor Turning Point USA event at a Utah college, but before anyone knew that Kirk had died.
While discussing it, Dowd offered up the following commentary:
TUR: Talk to me about the environment in which a shooting like this happens.DOWD: Yeah, and again, that’s what you just emphasized, we don’t know any of the full details of this yet. We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration, so we have no idea about this. But following up on 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 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’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 not expect awful actions to take place, and that’s the unfortunate environment we’re in.
Undestandably outrage ensued to the extent that Dowd later wrote an apology on Blueksy, offering thoughts and prayers to Charlie Kirk’s family and friends while claiming that he “in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack.”
MSNBC, too, issued an apology, saying “Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable” and that “There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.” Yet despite Dowd’s apology, he was fired that same night.
On Friday, Comcast issued a warning of sorts to NBCUniversal employees in the aftermath, referencing the Dowd incident and suggesting “we need to do better”:
The tragic loss of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father, husband, and advocate for open debate, whose faith was important to him, reminds us of the fragility of life and the urgent need for unity in our nation. Our hearts are heavy, as his passing leaves a grieving family and a country grappling with division. There is no place for violence or hate in our society.You may have seen that MSNBC recently ended its association with a contributor who made an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event. That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions. We should be able to disagree, robustly and passionately, but, ultimately, with respect. We need to do better.
Dowd, meanwhile, addressed the controversy in a Substack post, alleging that at the time of his remarks, it was only known that shots were fired, not that anyone had been hit by them:
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.
Whether one believes him or not (FWIW, the chyron was displaying a message that Kirk had been shot even before Dowd, who was speaking remotely, said what he did), he went on to double down in the next paragraph, throwing in a Nazi Germany comparison for good measure:
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. The effort by Holocaust survivors to remind folks of Germany in the 1930s #ItStartedWithWords came to my mind and I said my now legendary line “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which ultimately lead to hateful actions”. I thought to myself how could anyone disagree with this. I guess I was naive.
Given the second half of his initial comments as well as the fact that he seemed to double down in his Substack explainer, I’m not inclined to believe Dowd. Further, I have to believe that executives at MSNBC reviewed the tape in context before deciding to fire Dowd.
Whatever the case may be, though Dowd is no longer with the network, Tur is, and suffice it to say that she sounded very different on Thursday than she did on Wednesday:
It won’t last long, but it’s something, I guess.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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