In a public forum, a left-wing activist is shot while advocating for the right of men who identify as women to compete in women's sports.
The suspected shooter has a conservative ideology, and is in a romantic relationship with a woman who is an activist working to prevent men from competing against women.
Think Morning Joe would argue that the shooter's motives don't really matter, and that we should focus instead on other issues? Rhetorical question.
But when the tables are turned . . .
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, someone Morning Joe has praised, has stated that Tyler Robinson has a "leftist ideology," and was in a romantic relationship with a male transitioning to female. And at the moment Robinson allegedly shot him, Charlie Kirk was discussing shootings by trans people.
So, shouldn't we delve deeply into Robinson's motives, and consider their cultural and political implications?
Nope, says MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire. On today's Morning Joe, MSNBC's Lemire argued that Tyler Robinson's motives "almost shouldn't matter." Isn't Lemire a "news" reporter? Facts don't matter?
Employing the James Carville deflection technique of "look ovah heah, a squirrel!," Lemire argued that rather than considering Robinson's motives, "we should be focusing" on the fact that the country is "awash in guns," and on the harmful influence of social media.
Lemire also employed some linguistic sleight of hand. After noting that "it's simply not the case" that Democratic politicians are reveling in Kirk's death, he claimed that "people" have been responsible.
See what he did there? Lemire used the fact that Democrat politicians have not been so self-destructive as to celebrate Kirk's death to claim that "people" on the left in general have not done so.
That's patently false. In fact, we're "awash" in leftists celebrating Charlie's death in the most ghoulish manner possible. And it began right there at MSNBC, where host Katy Tur teed up Matthew Dowd to suggest that karma caught up with Kirk, and to speculate that he was killed by a supporter "shooting their gun off in celebration."
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
9/15/25
6:15 am EDTJONATHAN LEMIRE: There's been an effort here to sort of cast about from the right, sort of pointing fingers at the left to sort of claim that Democratic politicians are reveling in Charlie Kirk's death. That's simply not been the case. People have been responsible. Even mournful. This is an American tragedy. It's not just a Republican tragedy. It's not a Democratic tragedy. It's an American tragedy.
But there is this sort of sense of this could be a pretense for some sort of crackdown. And that would be, just make things worse. It would fan the flames.
There's so little we know yet about this shooter and his motives. And again, they almost shouldn't matter because what happened here, it's a culture, a society where we've had this rise in political violence. We are awash in guns. It's clear.One thing we do know about this individual, a lot of time online, that the worries of the dangers of social media become more and more clear each and every day. That's what we should be focusing on.
