Political commentator Ed Schultz has died from natural causes, according to multiple reports.
The radio and TV host, who started as a conservative pundit before officially becoming a Democrat in 2000, anchored “The Ed Show” on MSNBC from 2009 to 2015. He then joined RT America in 2016 to lead its primetime lineup with “The News with Ed Schultz.”
A former college football player for Minnesota State University Moorhead, Schultz started his career as a sports journalist in the 1980s at television stations in Fargo, N.D., including WDAY-TV. The news outlet was among the first to report his death.
Schultz made headlines shortly after his move to RT America — the U.S.-based channel for the Kremlin-backed, English-language news network — for defending it against accusations it was promoting Russian propaganda. The self-styled “prairie populist” had previously been critical of then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The Clinton camp is trying to do all it can to connect Donald Trump to Putin,” Schultz told the Washington Post before the 2016 presidential election. “They’re trying to cast anyone on RT in a negative light. I think it’s deplorable. We’re journalists. We’re fair. We have correspondents all over the world. Yes, part of our funding comes from the government. But so does the BBC. So does the Canadian Broadcasting Network. The mainstream depiction of RT is a travesty. It’s dishonest.”
