Denver Radio Host Chuck Bonniwell Fired For Wishing For ‘A Nice School Shooting’ To Interrupt Impeachment News

A conservative Denver radio talk show host, fed up with the nonstop news of the impeachment of Donald Trump on Wednesday, was fired after he wished, on-the-air, for a “nice school shooting” to distract from the news, The Denver Post reports.

KNUS-AM personality Chuck Bonniwell was doing his afternoon show on Wednesday when, after returning from a break, he expressed his dissatisfaction with how much of the news cycle was being dominated by the impeachment.

“All right, Chuck Bonniwell, Julie Hayden here, a little after 1:30, talking about the never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump,” Bonniwell said when returning from break. Then, he started the next sentence before being interrupted by his co-host.

“You know you wish for a nice school shooting…” he said, before co-host Hayden interrupted.

“Don’t even — don’t even say that. No, don’t even say that,” she said, before imploring the listeners not to call them, presumably to take them to task for Bonniwell’s remark.

Bonniwell, for his part, added a qualifier, saying, “… which no one would be hurt.”

Not unexpectedly, the remark drew swift outrage, including from area listeners who had themselves been affected by such tragedies. Indeed, Colorado has been the scene of two of the country’s most high-profile mass shootings: one at Columbine High School in Littleton in 1999, which left 15 people dead; and the 2012 mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater, which left 12 people dead.

Colorado talk radio host Chuck Bonniwell of @710KNUS said he wished for "a nice school shooting" to interrupt coverage of President Trump's impeachment. #copolitics #9NEWS pic.twitter.com/cgrsIftwD7

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) December 18, 2019

Sandy Phillips, who lost her daughter Jessi in the Aurora shooting, was incensed.

“This guy should be fired. Total ignorance. Shootings hurt us all…just ask witnesses and first responders. You don’t have to be shot to be wounded,” she tweeted.

As it turns out, Bonniwell has, in fact, been fired. A few hours later, KNUS tweeted that Bonniwell’s remark was unacceptable, and that he has been removed from the station’s lineup of hosts.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT:
Given the history of school violence that has plagued our community, 710 KNUS confirms that an inappropriate comment was made on the Chuck & Julie show by co-host Chuck Bonniwell. A programming decision was made to end the program immediately.

— 710 KNUS Denver (@710KNUS) December 19, 2019

It was the second time in a matter of weeks that KNUS has let go of a conservative personality for his on-air remarks.

In November, as reported at the time by The Inquisitr, host Craig Silverman was let go in the middle of his show for remarks he made about Donald Trump. The conservative host was attempting to express his concerns about a Trump associate who had connections to Joseph McCarthy. As Silverman was playing a clip of one of his own interviews with someone connected to the situation, the radio station cut to a network news broadcast. His producer purportedly walked in, told him, “you’re done,” and within hours, all references to him and his show were removed from the KNUS website.