Politics

Bret Baier: Gay solider ‘boo’ at debate was exaggerated

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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The field of Republican presidential candidates, and those participating in the nominating process by attending debates, have attracted negative attention in recent months for what some see as mean-spirited outbursts during debates. For example, allegations swirled around Thursday’s Fox News/Google debate that audience members “booed” a gay soldier.

But Bret Baier, the host of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” and one of the debate’s moderators, contended on the Fox News Radio Network’s “Kilmeade & Friends” show that what TV audiences heard was just a few isolated individuals.

“First of all, the audience was, I think, 5,500 maybe — [a] huge, huge audience,” Baier said. “And the boos on that gay soldier may have been two people, maybe three out of 5,500. Now, it was loud. It was audible. It was a cavernous facility, the Orange County Convention Center.”

Baier said it would be unfair to use that incident and another in an earlier debate to frame the sentiment of the entire Republican Party.

“It would be painting with a broad brush to say, ‘Hey, this crowd booed a gay soldier,’” he continued. “And I think the same is true for the clapping of seeing the person die in Wolf Blitzer’s debate.”

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