December 18, 2019 12:01 PM UTC

Impeachment Is So Boring "You Wish for a Nice School Shooting," Says KNUS Radio Host

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• by: Jason Salzman

(What the…? — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

UPDATE: KNUS management has canceled Bonniwell’s radio program, called the Chuck and Julie show, and removed all archived audio from past shows from the station’s website. “Given the history of school violence that has plagued our community,” a statement released Wednesday evening by 710 KNUS Denver reads, “710 KNUS confirms that an inappropriate comment was made on the Chuck and Julie show by co-host Chuck Bonniwell. A programming decision was made to end the program immediately.” In response to the backlash against his comment, Bonniwell stated on Twitter, “I made an inappropriate comment meant as a joke. I’m sorry it was not received that way.”

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Denver radio host Chuck Bonniwell began a segment of his afternoon radio show Tuesday by lamenting the “never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump,” and then saying, “You know, you wish for a nice school shooting to interrupt the monopoly.”

“No, don’t even say that! Don’t call us! Chuck didn’t say that,” said Julie Hayden, who’s Bonniwell’s co-host on the KNUS 710-AM show.

I called anyway, and Hayden told me Chuck regretted the comment.

“It was something he immediately wished he hadn’t said,” Hayden told me.

Bonniwell hasn’t apologized on air yet, but immediately after Hayden’s response to his comment, he told his audience that he meant shootings in “which no one would be hurt.”

Bonniwell’s comment came as KNUS is facing accusations that a staffer is a Nazi. KNUS management is reportedly conducting an internal investigation. and the producer has denied posting pro-Nazi comments on social media. The results have not been announced.

Bonniwell, who publishes the Cherry Creek/Glendale Chronicle, has a long track record of comments that draw media scrutiny.

Last year, during Jared Polis’ successful race to become Colorado’s governor, Boniwell said Polis has the support of the “gay mafia.”

During the same election, he called state Sen. Faith Winter of Westminster, “an overweight, unpleasant, vicious, amoral human being.”

A few years ago, Bonniwell told his listeners that Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, who was body slammed by Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT), was a “little jerk” and a “metrosexual.”

And, since the holiday season is upon us, you might want to know that Bonniwell once said Obama “doesn’t like Christmas.”

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