Speaker of the House Paul Ryan honored the late conservative intellectual Charles Krauthammer on the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday.
"I want to pause for a moment to honor the life of Dr. Charles Krauthammer," Ryan said.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer passed away on Thursday after a battle with cancer. Earlier this month, Krauthammer announced an aggressive form of cancer returned and he had only weeks to live. He spent the past year recovering from a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his abdomen and the complications that followed. He was 68 years old.
"Dr. Krauthammer was a widely respected conservative thinker. He wrote columns for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Charles was paralyzed since college, he wrote the most vigorous commentary of our age," Ryan said. "He was a Harvard-educated psychiatrist, he had the perfect training to analyze our politics."
Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1987 for his columns in the Washington Post, and he had a popular syndicated column for years. He became a regular panelist on Fox News’ "Special Report" and earned the respect of viewers and readers alike.
"Charles was a good friend of mine. He had a beautiful mind, and he had a wonderful, wonderful way about him," Ryan said. "Simply put, I loved this man. I loved his work. I would marvel over not just what he said, but how he said it. He had this unique ability to take the issue of the moment and place it perfectly in the context of just bigger things."
"As great as his intellect was, there was just absolutely no arrogance about him. He was good company; he was gracious; he was curious. Take any topic, and he had already thought through his argument, your argument, and all of the counterarguments before you had even got started to think. He was always willing to join the fight, but with good cheer. And he reveled in it. He excelled in it," Ryan added.
Ryan further remarked on Krauthammer contribution to the nation's civic discourse.
"Charles used his immeasurable gifts to contribute to our civic discourse, and he did it civilly, and we are all the better for it,
he said. "We will be wiser for what he has done for us. And I only hope and pray that we can emulate his spirit, his sense of wonder, and his sense of civility."
"The House, and this nation, are in his debt. Our prayers are with his family," Ryan said.