ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman has drawn fierce backlash after describing the text messages exchanged between accused assassin Tyler Robinson and his partner as “very touching.” Critics online branded his remarks “disgusting,” accusing him of romanticising a confession to murder.Speaking on ABC News Live, Gutman reflected on the details revealed in court about Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “It’s heartbreaking on so many levels, Kyra. Obviously, Charlie Kirk was murdered brutally in front of a crowd of thousands,” Gutman said. “On the other hand, there is this duality of a very portrait of a very human person, a very human experience from this entire family... the kid who had got a 34 out of 36 on the ACT, who had a 4.0.”He continued: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a press conference in which we’ve read text messages that are A, so fulsome, so robust, so apparently, allegedly self-incriminating and yet, on the other hand, so touching — right — with the suspect reaching out to his roommate, who was allegedly his boyfriend, who we understand, you know, identified as male at birth, now identifies as female. And the terminology he used, he was trying to protect him. He kept calling him ‘my love.’ ‘My reason for doing this is to protect you,’ you know, but also asking him to delete the messages and not speak to law enforcement.”Gutman added that he was not sure “if we have seen an alleged murder with such specific text messages” that offered “a very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect’s roommate and the suspect himself, with him repeatedly calling his roommate, who is transitioning, calling him ‘my love.’ And ‘I want to protect you, my love.’”

Who is Matt Gutman?

Gutman is ABC News’ chief national correspondent and has been with the network for nearly two decades. He reports for World News Tonight with David Muir, 20/20, Good Morning America, Nightline and ABC News Live.