Political pundit Matthew Dowd has spoken out about his abrupt exit from MSNBC following controversial comments he made about the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.
The 64-year-old consultant says he was let go by the network due to comments he made on live TV the day of Kirk's death on Sept 10. The firing was previously reported by Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. On Sept. 11, MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler issued an apology on behalf of the network where she slammed Dowd’s comments as "inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable."
In a Substack piece posted Sept. 12, Dowd addressed his exit and elaborated more on the words that prompted his removal, writing: "Wow, what a few days."
He said his controversial comment theorizing whether the incident was caused by Kirk supporter was made "before anyone knew Kirk was a target." He also said that he has repeatedly condemned gun violence in the United States across his career including in some of his nearly 1,000 MSNBC interviews.
"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," Dowd wrote. "Remember Kirk is a diehard advocate of the 2nd amendment."
