Just Because It's Trending Doesn't Mean It's True

NBC Producer Who Tweeted Would-Be Trump Assassin Might Be 'A Good Guy With A Gun' Makes Games, Not News

  • by: Alan Duke
  • (Thu, 23 Jun 2016 02:10:07 Z)

An NBC producer who tweeted sympathetic words for a man arrested for attempting to take a police officer's gun to shoot Donald Trump makes games, not news.

A Twitter storm erupted Wednesday after Matthew Mowrer tweeted "It could be argued that the dude who was hoping to assassinate Donald Trump is "a good guy with a gun."

mowrer tweet.jpg

His Twitter account has since been locked and Mowrer has not responded to media inquiries. He also removed his reference to being a "Producer on NBC's Ninja Warrior" from his Twitter bio. TheBlaze.com saved a screenshot of the tweet before it was protected.

The NBC connection drew immediate attention with calls for NBC News to fire him, although he does not work for the network's news division.

Mowrer's LinkedIn profile says he is a 2002 Temple University graduate with a film/cinema major who has worked the past two years an associate producer at NBCUniversal in Los Angeles. He started with NBCUniversal as a creative consultant for its Defiance TV series in 2011, his resume says.

Court documents released Monday alleged that Michael Stevens, 19, tried to grab the handle of a Las Vegas police officer's handgun after saying he wanted to get close to the GOP presumptive nominee for an autograph at a weekend rally Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas.

Stevens is from the United Kingdom and is in the country illegally after overstaying his visa, according to the papers.

A sample of Twitter reactions:

About the author:

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

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