Fox News host Trey Gowdy reacted on Wednesday to the breaking news that two children had been killed in a mass shooting at a Minnesota church by stating that “the only thing that can give us any modicum of peace at all” is that the victims were with Jesus Christ now.
According to law enforcement officials, a gunman opened fire during mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, shooting through the church windows while schoolchildren prayed.
Two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed in the shooting while 17 others – including 14 children – were injured. According to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, the gunman – who was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol – died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suspect, whom O’Hara said was in his early 20s, “does not have an extensive known criminal history.”
“The shooter approached on one side of the church building, and on that side, at least two doors, it appears there had been a two-by-four placed,” O’Hara added. “So not all of the doors around the building, but on the side the shooter did fire.”
During Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News panel show Outnumbered, Gowdy – a former prosecutor and Republican congressman – was asked to weigh in on the massacre based on his “vast experience” as a lawmaker and assistant United States attorney.
“It is the softest of all targets,” he said. “The church literally rolls out the welcome mat for troubled people. It’s the place for troubled people to go. So it is the softest of all targets and the most innocent of all victims – children.”
Stating that “even those that survived will be impacted for the remainder of their lives,” Gowdy added that there “are no words for the parents whose children were killed.” At the same time, he reiterated that “we do have to have a conversation about protecting soft targets,” specifically churches and schools.
“Literally, the whole purpose of the church is to welcome people who are down and out, who are depressed, who feel ostracized,” he said. “That is the purpose of church. Having said that, there are no words.”
From there, Gowdy insisted that the only thing that could spell relief for the grieving parents was that their children were now up in heaven with their lord and savior.
“The only thing that can give us any modicum of peace at all is that those two children are with the person who loved them the very most, the person who created them, that being Jesus,” he declared. “That is the only thing that can possibly give parents in the future any modicum of peace. Those children are literally with the person who loved them the very most.”
Wrapping up his thoughts, Gowdy stated that he was “glad the shooter is dead” but wished that “he had taken his life before he took the lives of innocent children.”
Gowdy’s on-air remarks were met with furious backlash from progressives and liberals, who blasted the Fox News star for what they felt was a tone-deaf approach to the tragedy.
“I know a ton of people who are very serious about their faith. I guess Trey Gowdy [is] trying to do some version of it’s in Gods hands,” Rolling Stone senior reporter Asawin Suebsang posted on Bluesky. “I would never think to say this to any devout friend or family member who had just had a kid murdered.”
Former Jezebel editor-in-chief Laura Bassett, meanwhile, was far more succinct with her reaction to Gowdy’s comments. “What the F***,” she wrote, adding: “If a man said that to me after my child was murdered with a gun I would strangle him to death on the spot.”
Perhaps ironically, Gowdy also took heat from many conservatives online over comments he made a few moments later during Outnumbered’s coverage of the shooting.
“We're going to have a conversation of freedom versus protecting children,” he exclaimed. “How many school shootings does it take before we’re going to have a conversation about keeping firearms out of – it’s always a young white male. Almost always. I mean, did anyone this morning think, I wonder if that was a female? Did any of y’all think that?!”
Gowdy’s observation about mass shooters prompted several right-wing accounts on X to call for Fox News to “fire him now” while demanding that the ex-GOP lawmaker quickly “issue an apology.”
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