ADVERTISEMENT

NBC Reporter Dismisses Host Bringing Up Dayton Shooter's Pro-Warren Tweet

Shooter said he'd 'happily vote' Warren

August 5, 2019

NBC reporter Ben Collins on Monday falsely claimed the Dayton, Ohio shooter was "more neutral" with his political posts on Twitter, despite the shooter saying he would "happily vote" for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) to be president.

Speaking to MSNBC co-host Ali Velshi, Collins offered new information about the Dayton shooter, explaining that "Authorities say they don't find any race motives in this thing at all. They haven't seen anything yet."

"He killed his own sister," co-host Stephanie Ruhle interjected.

"He killed his own sister. There is a social media presence. He identified himself as part of the left. He had tweeted — we don't know if it was an endorsement or what it was about, but he tweeted about Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders," Collins said.

When Ruhle attempted to clarify that the tweets mentioned Warren and Sanders in a "positive way," Collins dismissed her.

"More neutral than anything. We don't know if there's any political affiliation. There's no manifesto. There's nothing about that," Collins said. "We do know from other reporting elsewhere that in high school he was viewed as a misogynist and had threatened women in the past. That's something that is separate of any sort of political talk."

Heavy reported on Sunday that the 24-year-old shooter has a history of supporting liberal politicians on Twitter and advocating for socialism. One tweet from last November said, "Vote blue for gods sake" in reference to an article about voting Republicans out of office. In another tweet, he said, "I want socialism, and I'll wait not wait for the idiots to finally come around to understanding."

He also responded to a tweet back in June that included a selfie of Warren and Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), two of the Democratic female presidential candidates. The original tweet said, " I mean... co-Presidents?" The shooter responded, "Nahh, but only cuz Harris is a cop - Warren I'd happily vote for." He also responded to another tweet about supporting Sanders by saying, "I think Warren has a decent shot, as well."