David Simon, creator of HBO’s “The Wire,” unleashed his fury on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Thursday after a shooter stormed the office building of the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and claimed at least five lives.
Prior to Thursday’s shooting, Rubio had published a series of tweets suggesting that the media has a problem with biased reporting and is partly to blame for the public’s loss of trust.
Simon, whose crime show was set and produced in Baltimore, accused Rubio of inciting a dangerous conversation.
“You’ve affirmed the notion that the press is an alien, untrustworthy cohort,” Simon said in a tweet directed at Rubio, whom he called “unfit to be a citizen of a republic, much less a legislator.”
Simon also pushed back at those who defended Rubio because the senator had made his comments before the shooting in Annapolis occurred.
As of publication time Thursday, Rubio had not yet issued a statement on the Capital Gazette shooting.
He has, however, pushed back against gun control laws in the months since the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, earlier this year. As hundreds of thousands of people called for stronger gun legislation during the March For Our Lives demonstrations, Rubio issued a statement telling them he does not support their cause.
He also has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association for supporting gun-friendly legislation and has received $3.3 million from the group as of March.