MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd Victim-Blames Charlie Kirk Minutes After Shooting

MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd immediately blamed Charlie Kirk — the right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder who was shot at an event in Utah on Wednesday — for his own fate upon joining his colleague Katy Tur to discuss the shooting on air.

After Tur criticized permissive gun laws in Utah, she asked Dowd to weigh in on the horrifying events of the afternoon.

“Matthew, I’m gonna bring you in on this. Talk to me about the environment. You know, we are, there are-, reports of exactly what happened are not confirmed yet. But talk to me about the environment in which a shooting like this happens,” Tur prompted Dowd.

Dowd proceeded to speculate wildly about the attack, suggesting it could have been perpetrated by a Kirk supporter.

“Yeah. And again, I emphasize what you just emphasized, we don’t know any full details of this,” Dowd said. “We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration, so we have no idea about this.”

The MSNBC contributor went on to victim-blame Kirk for the shooting.

“But following up with 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, or sort of aimed at certain groups,” Dowd said. “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 then not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in,” he concluded.

Watch above via MSNBC.