Matthew Dowd's firing begins flood of people facing consequences for
their comments on Kirk's death
[September 12, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER and ALI SWENSON
NEW YORK (AP) — Matthew Dowd opened a floodgate.
The MSNBC political analyst, who lost his job shortly after on-air
comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination, was
the first of many figures to face consequences Thursday for public
statements or actions about the shooting.
Indeed, raw feelings about the killing have ignited a campaign to shame
— and more. Several conservative activists sought to identify social
media users whose posts about Kirk they viewed as offensive or
celebratory. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer said she would try to
ruin the professional aspirations of anyone who celebrated Kirk's death.
MSNBC said Dowd is no longer with the network after his comments,
shortly after the shooting, about “hateful words” leading to “hateful
actions.” Both MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler and Dowd apologized for
the remarks, which Kutler called “inappropriate, insensitive and
unacceptable.”
Dowd said he didn't intend for his comments to blame Kirk for the
attack. Still, it brought an abrupt interruption to his work as a
television commentator, which the former aide to President George W.
Bush has done for nearly two decades.
Actions spread across country, from Mississippi to Arizona
A Florida reporter was suspended for a question posed to a congressman.
A comic book writer lost her job because of social media posts, as did
educators in Mississippi and Tennessee. "CBS Mornings" host Nate
Burleson was attacked for a question. An Arizona sports reporter and a
Carolina Panthers public relations official both lost jobs.
An anonymously registered website pledged to “Expose Charlie's
Murderers” and asked people to offer tips about people who were
“supporting political violence online.”
The site published a running list Thursday of targeted posts, along with
the names, locations and employers of people who posted them. While some
posts contained incendiary language, others didn't appear to celebrate
the shooting or glorify violence. There were several similar efforts,
including one by activist Scott Presler, who asked his followers about
teachers who supposedly celebrated Kirk's assassination, and posted
findings on X.
A staff member at the University of Mississippi was fired after sharing
“insensitive comments” about Kirk's death, according to the school's
chancellor, Glenn Boyce. The university did not identify the employee or
immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
The president of Middle Tennessee State University said he'd fired a
staffer who offered “callous and inappropriate comments on social media”
about the assassination. President Sidney A. McPhee did not identify the
staff member but said the person “worked in a position of trust with our
students.”
It wasn't clear if it was the same person, but an X post by Tennessee
GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn identified an assistant dean of students at
MTSU who posted online that she had “ZERO sympathy” following the
shooting. Blackburn said the person should be ashamed and fired.
A warning to teachers in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' education commissioner warned the state's
teachers that making “disgusting” statements about Kirk's assassination
could draw sanctions, including the suspension or revocation of their
teaching licenses. Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said in a memo to
school district superintendents that he'd been made aware of
“despicable” comments on social media.
“I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in
this vile, sanctionable behavior,” Kamoutsas said in the memo, which he
also posted on X on Thursday. “Govern yourselves accordingly.”
The rush to police commentary appeared to have little precedent in other
recent examples of political violence, such as the 2022 attack on Paul
Pelosi, husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or the shooting
deaths earlier this year former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman,
a Democrat, and her husband Mark.
DC Comics announced that it was ditching a new “Red Hood” series, a
Batman spinoff, after one issue had been published and two more were in
the works. The comics' writer, Gretchen Felker-Martin, had published
comments about Kirk's shooting online that DC called offensive.
“Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or
violence are inconsistent with DC's standards of conduct,” the comics
publisher said.
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Matthew Dowd, chief campaign strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004
presidential campaign, speaks at the University of Arkansas Clinton
School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark., Wednesday, Sept. 2,
2009. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)
 Loomer, whose pressure campaigns
have resulted in several Trump administration firings, attacked the
entertainment website TMZ for what she called a “disgusting”
livestream where employees could be heard laughing and cheering
seconds before Kirk's death was announced. TMZ said the noise had
nothing to do with the Kirk story — the staff members were crowded
around a computer watching a car chase — but apologized for the bad
timing and how it looked to viewers.
A writer for the Arizona media company PHNX Sports was fired after
conservative activists called attention to a series of online posts
that attacked Kirk's positions on guns and Gaza and called him evil.
The NFL's Panthers distanced themselves from an employee who posted
comments about Kirk and a photo referencing Wu-Tang Clan's song
“Protect Ya Neck.” Kirk was shot in the neck. Football
communications coordinator Charlie Rock was fired, according to a
person with knowledge of the situation who spoke under condition of
anonymity because the team typically doesn't announce firings.
Rock's name has been removed from the team's website. He did not
immediately return messages seeking comment.
Football star turned CBS News anchor under attack
Burleson, a former football star turned anchor for CBS News' morning
show, was attacked online for asking former House Speaker Kevin
McCarthy on the air Thursday whether this was a moment for the
Republican party to reflect on political violence. His co-anchor,
Gayle King, immediately tried to soften the question by
interjecting, “I'd say both parties.”
Another former NFL player, Jay Feely, running for Congress in
Arizona, said the question was offensive. “Charlie Kirk was
assassinated in front of his family and you ask if Republicans need
to tone down their rhetoric?" he said. (Kirk's family was not
present at the shooting.) Some conservative media stars also weighed
in, with talk show host Erick Erickson calling for Burleson to be
fired and Clay Travis calling him a ”moron."
A reporter for the Floridapolitics.com news site was suspended for
texting a Florida congressman a question about gun control
immediately after Kirk’s shooting. Peter Schorsch,
Floridapolitics.com publisher, said he was concerned reporter A.G.
Gancarski was trying to provoke a source rather than initiate a
serious policy discussion.
U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, texted back that he had
learned of Kirk’s shooting only 23 minutes earlier and was repulsed
to get the question when people should be praying for Kirk’s safety.
Schorsch said he agreed that the timing was inappropriate, and
didn’t want any of his staff members to be put in danger by anyone
angry about it.
“I think everybody today should be asking questions about a wide
range of policies,” Schorsch said in an interview Thursday. “But
when a house is on fire, I don’t think you should ask questions
about a person’s insurance policy. You put out the fire first.”
He said Gancarski was a good reporter who made a mistake. He’ll be
back on the job after a few days out. Gancarski, reached by phone,
declined comment.
The feminist website Jezebel removed a post headlined “We Paid Some
Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk” that was published Monday, two
days before Kirk's death. “The piece was intended as satire and made
it absolutely clear that we wished no physical harm. We stand by
every word,” Jezebel said in an editor's note.
“We may republish at a later date, but out of compassion for the
victim's family, we want to make clear that we prioritize an end to
violence over anyone wanting to read about Etsy witches,” Jezebel
said, in a reference to the online storefront.
___
AP journalists Sophie Bates, Kate Payne, Steve Reed and Nicholas
Riccardi contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about media
for the AP.
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