NBC News reporter Ben Collins appeared to downplay the Dayton shooter’s support for 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren during a Monday afternoon appearance on MSNBC Live with Velshi and Ruhle.
The 24-year old gunman opened fire killing nine people and wounding 27 more early Sunday morning. The shooter’s sister was among the victims who lost their lives.
Heavy found a Twitter account allegedly associated with the shooter that revealed he identified as a “leftist.” One tweet from the account was a reply to a tweet that questioned if Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren could be “co-Presidents?” The response read, “Nahh, but only cuz Harris is a cop – Warren I’d happily vote for.”
“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, he tweeted about Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders,” he said.
“In a positive way?” Stephanie Ruhle asked.
“More neutral than anything,” Collins answered. “We don’t know if there’s any politicization, no manifesto, there’s nothing about that. We 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.”
