The subject of the sentence was "the MAGA gang" - and it's true that they (and the president himself) were the ones desperately declaring right after the assassination before we had any information that shooter was a radical leftist. So for me it's a fair statement and really only disinformation if you purposely distort the sentence.

The second part of what he said is also a true statement, that they're using this tragic event to score political points and go after their political opponents.

Well, the kid did turn out to have ties to a radical leftist organization. He spent an awful lot of time on Antifa discord servers and, according to his acquaintances and friends, had frequent arguments with his conservative parents over politics. You think they were arguing about who voted Republican harder?

The president and co making such claims based on little or no evidence doesn't become OK just because some is turned up later.

Early, and correct, claims were made based on the inscriptions found on the bullets and shell casings, IIRC.

People certainly jumped to conslusions about them and extrapolated from there.

I disagree - my read is that he is saying the MAGA gang was trying to exploit the tragedy and desperately point fingers, which I think is accurate.

>You're ignoring the part of the quote where he implied the killer was MAGA or MAGA affiliated. For reference the full quote is:

He did not. But even if he did, so what?

Does either interpretation make his comment somehow illegal and deserving of government threats to retaliate against folks unless Kimmel was punished?

That's not a rhetorical question.

IMNSHO, you're focusing on the wrong thing here. What difference does it make what legal speech was used? The problem is that the government is trying to silence the critics of those currently in power. And at least in the US, the government isn't allowed to do that -- whether they're critics of the current administration or not.

If you don't decry that, it could be you and yours next. You've been warned.

Now fact-check Fox News.

Let’s just say that the alleged shooter’s political philosophies are likely complex and are yet to be fully understood.

>Now fact-check Fox News.

Did you miss the second part of my comment? Even if Kimmel was in the wrong he shouldn't be taken off the air. I'm just pointing out why Trump might be upset. It's a reason, not necessarily a good reason.

>Let’s just say that the alleged shooter’s political philosophies are likely complex and are yet to be fully understood

By most accounts it's safe to say he's left leaning. You don't have to be a card carrying DSA member or have your ideology fully align with the Democrats platform to earn that label.

You could also just say he was a unaffiliated lunatic who was sick of Kirk's rhetoric and hate speech and took it into his own hands.