Former MSNBC host Joy Reid criticized her former network in a new interview for firing former analyst Matthew Dowd over his comments about late conservative activist Charlie Kirk after Kirk was shot.
In an interview with The Guardian, published Saturday, Reid defended Dowd, saying his claim that Kirk should have expected violence because of his rhetoric was accurate and “inoffensive.”
“I’m hearing from friends that still work at MS NOW [MSNBC’s new name], whatever its new name is, having to work in a place that fired Matt Dowd for saying an absolutely true and inoffensive fact,” Reid said.
Dowd sparked backlash on Sept. 10 when he suggested that Kirk had it coming because he was promoting “hate speech” in the media and on college campuses.
After news broke of the shooting that day, Dowd said Kirk had been “one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this country, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”
Dowd made his comments before the network confirmed that Kirk had died. Police charged 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson with the murder.
Dowd added, “I think that’s the environment we’re in, that the people just — 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’re in.”
MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler apologized for Dowd’s comments in a statement hours later.
“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
Dowd was fired the same day.
In her Guardian interview, Reid claimed Dowd’s firing reflected what she described as the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on media outlets to curb speech critical of the president.
“It’s that these corporations are all doing business with the administration. They all have business before the FCC [Federal Communications Commission], and therefore they are going to make their content and the journalism being done at those institutions — they’re going to make it bow to the bigger corporate need.”
Reid added that because of what she described as “Trump-era pressure,” her friends at MSNBC now realize that Dowd “was dismissed summarily for saying a true thing about Charlie Kirk, and each of them could be, too.”
Dowd later accused MSNBC of caving to a right-wing “mob” by dismissing him.
Fox News Digital reached out to MSNBC for comment but did not immediately receive a response.