The All-Star Panel on Fox News' Special Report Wednesday tore apart an editorial from the New York Times which partially blamed the terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, on Republicans.
Host Bret Baier first read a portion of it:
Hate crimes don't happen in a vacuum. They occur where bigotry is allowed to fester, where minorities are vilified and where people are scapegoated for political gain. Tragically, this is the state of American politics, driven too often by Republican politicians, who see prejudice as something to exploit, not extinguish,’ continuing, ‘as the funerals are held for those who perished on Sunday, lawmakers who have actively championed discriminatory laws and policies and those who have quietly enabled them with votes should force themselves to read the obituaries and look at the photos.
The 49 people killed in Orlando were victims of a terrorist attack but they also need to be remembered as casualties of a society where hate has deep roots.’
Jonah Goldberg, a senior editor at National Review, didn't mince words.
"I'm reluctant to say this, but that might be the single dumbest editorial in the history of the New York Times," Goldberg said. "It's like a pinata, you can hit it from any angle and get some reward."
"First of all, the guy was a registered Democrat, right, he swore allegiance to ISIS and somehow it's Republican opposition to gay marriage that is somehow associated with this? I know for a fact that a lot of the founders of the Nazi party were gays. Should we revisit the issue of Nazism based upon the fact that they were homosexuals?" Goldberg said.
"It's one of these examples how from the top down, from Barack Obama to a lot of the mainstream media, they don't want to actually talk about this for what it is, which is a terrorist attack, a guy motivated and inspired by radical Islamic terrorism. Instead, they want to move the conversation back to comfortable topics like gay rights and gun control, and it is just a giant con."
Mara Liasson, the national political correspondent for National Public Radio, also had comment about the article.
"Some people have called Donald Trump a cartoon caricature of the left's version of what a Republican politician is. This is the cartoon caricature of what people would say about a liberal editorial page," Liasson said.
The Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson also chimed in and took on what he believes was part of the terrorists' reasoning after taking a swipe at Anderson Cooper.
"This is really kind of the Anderson Cooper position, which is, ‘if you have a problem with gay marriage, you inspired this attack.’ No," Carlson said.
"This is not an American form of homophobia, this is a Middle Eastern form. So why is it America's fault?" Carlson said. "What you're seeing in this is very recognizable if you have talked to liberals or listened to the president, it's ‘this is America's fault.’ No, actually it's not."