Matthew Dowd, the political analyst fired by MSNBC over his commentary on Charlie Kirk, has said that the network agreed with him that his remarks were being misconstrued, but dismissed him anyway. Speaking on Katie Couric's podcast, Dowd said: 'I said: “You know and I know that’s not anything what I meant. You know it’s been misconstrued” – and they agreed with that. They agreed it had been misconstrued. But they said it didn’t matter. The decision’s been made.'
Dowd was fired after he suggested on air that Kirk's own rhetoric may have contributed to his shooting death in Utah. He said: 'I always go back to … hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have saying these awful words, and then not expect awful actions to take place.'
MSNBC publicly condemned Dowd's analysis as 'inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable'. Dowd has since accused the network of caving to a 'rightwing media mob' in a Substack article, saying that his comments were made when little was known about the circumstances of Kirk's death.
In his conversation with Couric, Dowd also expressed confusion over the greater outrage among his former colleagues at ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel over his commentary on the Trump administration's response to Kirk's death, compared to the silence about his own dismissal.
