TMZ has issued an apology after staff members burst into laughter at the moment when Charlie Kirk’s death was announced during an unflattering livestream.
The entertainment news outlet found itself in hot water while reporting on the gory death of the MAGA firebrand on Wednesday.
While Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere were discussing the assassination of the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder, laughter was heard in the background.
Levin remained stoic as he broke the harrowing news to the live audience, but viewers were sickened by what they heard.
“During today’s TMZ livestream, employees were heard cheering, clapping and celebrating just 30 seconds before announcing Charlie Kirk’s death,” one X user noted.
“They laughed and applauded the cold-blooded murder of a husband and father on a public broadcast, like it was some kind of sick joke, before handing it off to Harvey Levin.”
TMZ has broken its silence on the inappropriately-timed cheering, claiming there was no ill intent.
‘We were livestreaming all day during this tragedy,’ Levin began during an apology video alongside Latibeaudiere.
Ring-winged influencer Charlie Kirk (pictured) eerily spoke about gun violence as he was gorily assassinated at a Utah Valley University Rally
While Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere were discussing the assassination of the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder, laughter erupted in the background.
“When we were reporting the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there were some people in the back room, away from our news desk here, who were watching a car chase.”
He explained that those individuals were laughing and clapping at the car chase, not Kirk being shot in the neck.
Levin went as far as to say those people ‘would not work here’ if they found Kirk’s death funny in anyway.
‘We acknowledge that it was horrible timing,’ Latibeaudiere chimed in. ‘And for that, we are sorry.
‘We assure you, [the laughter] was not about that.’
In a written piece about what they say was a massive faux pas, the outlet admitted that ‘watching a car chase at that moment was tone deaf.’
The entertainment company also took to X to clarify what happened in the newsroom as Kirk was killed.
The Daily Mail has reached out to TMZ for further comment.
The conservative activist, 31, was assassinated while taking questions from the crowd at the Orem college on Wednesday afternoon.
A single bullet struck him in the neck – causing blood to spew as he tipped back in his chair – as he was responding to a question about gun violence in America.
President Donald Trump confirmed Kirk had died as few hours later.
‘The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,’ the president wrote on Truth Social.
There is currently no one in custody for the shooting, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Wednesday night.
The FBI detained an unnamed suspect earlier in the day, but they were released after interrogation, Patel said.
‘The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency,’ he wrote on X.
