Olbermann slammed for connecting school shooting to suspect's parent's support for Trump
WASHINGTON (TND) — Political commentator Keith Olbermann is getting slammed for a social media post appearing to draw a connection between the actions of a Michigan school shooting suspect and his mother’s past support of former President Donald Trump.
Olbermann’s comments were in response to a Barstool Sports article commemorating a student who reportedly gave his life during the shooting to protect his classmates.
“This kid died to stop a school shooter whose mother echoed the Trumpist Fascism of @stoolpresidente and @barstoolsports,” Olbermann tweeted alongside the article.
Backlash quickly ensued, including from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. “Dude wtf is wrong with you?” Portnoy asked Olbermann on social media.
Olbermann's tweet was referring to a Daily Beast report chronicling the suspect’s mother’s praise of Trump in an “open letter” from 2016.
A few hours after posting his tweet, Olbermann doubled down on his comments.
“A quick recap: @barstoolsports and @stoolpresidente sell the same fake-macho Trump pro-death bulls*** that the Michigan shooter’s parents revel in,” he tweeted. “For them to exploit the story of the kid who sacrificed himself to stop the shooter is hypocrisy beyond measure #ToHellWithBarstool.”
“Can we PLEASE approach this the way the fascists were, were this kid from a wildly liberal family?” Olbermann said in another tweet. “MICHIGAN SCHOOL SHOOTER WAS SON OF TRUMPIST GUN NUTS?” he added.
Some critics of the backlash against Olbermann came to his defense. “Leave it to Trumpists to be mad at Keith Olbermann for pointing out the mass murderer of children was raised by MAGA-loving, gun-worshipping parents — when they should be mad at the terrorist who murdered children,” tweeted journalist Sarah Reese Jones. “There is something fundamentally wrong with worshipping guns.”
