'Reacted to that mob': Ex-MSNBC pundit nails network over firing for Kirk comments

A popular MSNBC pundit who was swiftly fired for making an anodyne observation that conservative Charlie Kirk was a “divisive” figure pushed back at his dismissal and accused the network of being manipulated.

On his Substack platform, Matthew Dowd noted that he has been in the political commentary business for years and that he appeared on MSNBC nearly 1,000 times, discussing a wide range of topics and that his comments on Kirk, who was killed on Utah college campus were deliberately misconstrued in an orchestrated assault.

Speaking with MSNBC anchor Katy Tur on Wednesday, Dowd was asked about Kirk and suggested, “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful action. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place.”

Asked about the motive for the shooting, he stated “We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration. So we have no idea about this.”

On social media, the usual suspects on the far- right immediately set up a hue and cry and demanded he be fired even after he apologized to to those who claimed they were offended.

That did stop MSNBC president, Rebecca Kutler, from calling Dowd’s commentary “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable” before he was fired –– which has since outraged viewers.

According to Dowd, “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,” before adding, “I thought to myself how could anyone disagree with this. I guess I was naive.”

He then added, “The Right Wing media mob ginned up, went after me on a plethora of platforms, and MSNBC reacted to that mob. 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.”

Dowd pointed out that the recent flare-up was not the first time allies of Trump tried to get him fired, recalling from the president’s first term, “A number of times then President Trump and White House staff called up the head of ABC News and tried to get me to back off and have me fired. ABC News folks came to me a number of times after that and tried to get me to not be so critical. I ultimately left ABC News and ended up as senior political analyst at MSNBC.”

You can read more from him here.