Florida reporter suspended after Rep. Randy Fine bashes question
State Department warns foreign nationals in wake of Charlie Kirk killing
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said that “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”
A reporter for Floridapolitics.com was suspended for texting Representative Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, a question about gun control reform shortly after the shooting of Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
In a social media post, Fine shared a screenshot of his text exchange with reporter A.G. Gancarski, who asked if his position on gun control had changed following Kirk’s death.
Fine responded to the question, saying he learned of the shooting only 23 minutes before and ended with “Never contact me again.”
Peter Schorsch, Floridapolitics.com publisher, told the Associated Press that Gancarski was a good reporter who made a mistake and would be back on the job in a couple of days.
“I think everybody today should be asking questions about a wide range of policies,” he said. “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.”
At the same time, MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd was fired after comments he made following the shooting death of the conservative activist.
Shortly after the attack, Dowd said that Kirk was a divisive figure “who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which lead to hateful actions. And I think that’s the environment we’re in.”
Those comments were met with swift criticism from the right, prompting MSNBC to fire the paid political analyst. In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, the network’s president, Rebecca Kutler, issued a public apology.
“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable,” she said. “There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
In a subsequent post on Bluesky, Dowd issued a public apology for his comments on the network.
“Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack,” Dowd said. “Let us all come together and condemn violence of any kind.”
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
