MSNBC host Joe Scarborough applauded the network’s president Thursday morning for denouncing Matthew Dowd for his “obviously wrong and extraordinarily hurtful” remarks about the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Hours after Dowd described Kirk – the founder of MAGA youth organization Turning Point USA – as a “divisive” figure who pushed “hate speech” in the wake of Kirk’s assassination, MSNBC fired him as a political analyst.
At the top of Thursday’s broadcast of Morning Joe, Scarborough revealed that he had personally called President Donald Trump to offer his condolences over the death of Kirk, who the MSNBC star noted was a close friend and ally of the president’s. (The president would later announce he was posthumously giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Kirk.)
“I spoke with – we talk to the president from time to time, I certainly spoke with the president after Butler, Pennsylvania, to call and offer my condolences and I did the same thing last night because I knew he was close to Charlie,” Scarborough, who has swung from Trump pal to outspoken critic of the president over the years, said.
“And he said Charlie was a great man, he talked about how he was a singular talent for this time, especially for the conservative movement,” the host continued. “And President Trump even talked about how Charlie Kirk played a huge role in helping him get elected: The voter registration drives, going to college campuses.”
After Scarborough credited Kirk with turning out young conservative voters for Trump in the last election, co-host Willie Geist pointed out that there had been “near universal condemnation of what happened yesterday,” adding that “every living president” had condemned the shooting and offered prayers in support of Kirk’s family.
“And of course, there are always people on the fringe, on social media who are going to be idiots and celebrate the horrible moments like this, but there is near universal condemnation from political leadership for this act of violence and all acts of violence,” Geist added. “And this is a really important moment for our leaders to step up and say that again and again.”
With his colleague saying that “we’re getting it from both sides of the aisle and let’s hope that holds,” Scarborough jumped in to highlight MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler’s denouncement of remarks made by Dowd shortly after Kirk was shot.
“Let’s hope that holds – and also the leadership of this network,” Scarborough stated. “Someone came on – Matthew Dowd – yesterday, came on, and made a wild speculation that was obviously wrong and extraordinarily hurtful to many people.”
He continued: “Rebecca Kutler, so last night, came out and condemned his words in the strongest terms. So we’re glad she did that.”
During the network’s live coverage just after Kirk was shot, anchor Katy Tur was speaking about Utah’s gun laws when she wondered about the “environment in which a shooting like this happens” before turning to Dowd for his reaction.
“We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration. So we have no idea about this,” he responded before later turning to Kirk, bringing up the pro-Trump influencer’s politically fiery rhetoric.
“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 declared. “And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that is the environment we are in. 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 are in.”
Dowd’s comments immediately sparked intense backlash, especially from the right, who claimed that the longtime political strategist was blaming Kirk for his own death. Fox News host Jesse Watters, for instance, demanded that Dowd be “fired immediately” and that he expected the network to do just that within 24 hours.
“You can’t say Charlie deserved to die. Just can’t say that, and I hope he loses his job,” Watters said during Wednesday’s broadcast of The Five. “That’s the message. It’s dangerous to open your mouth, so shut it.”
Amid the uproar, Kutler issued a public apology while rebuking Dowd’s on-air remarks. “During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable,” she said. “We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
Dowd also took to social media to issue his own mea culpa, stating that his thoughts & prayers are w/ the family and friends of Charlie Kirk” before walking back his remarks.
“On an earlier appearance on MSNBC I was asked a question on the environment we are in. I apologize for my tone and words,” he wrote. “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.”
Hours later, Dowd was out at the network. While MSNBC has not publicly confirmed that it has terminated Dowd, who had been a political analyst with the left-leaning cable channel since 2022, a network source told The Independent on Wednesday evening that he had been fired.
While Dowd has faced repercussions for his commentary on the shooting, many prominent right-wing media figures and politicians have lashed out in rage and blamed the “radical left” for the assassination, with some outright calling for retribution.
“For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now,” Trump said in a statement from the Oval Office on Wednesday night. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.”
During the same hour that he called for Dowd to be fired over his comments, Watters said “we are going to avenge Charlie’s death in the way that Charlie wanted to be avenged” while adding that “everybody’s accountable” and he would be watching them closely.
“Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us,” the Fox star exclaimed. “And what are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And that’s the question we are just going to have to ask ourselves.”
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