Fox News Radio host and political contributor Alan Colmes found himself in sticky territory on Monday, after criticizing the way GOP candidate Rick Santorum and his wife, Karen, handled the 1996 death of their infant son, Gabriel.
In a heated clash on Fox News, Colmes appeared on air with Rich Lowry, editor of National Review. The two contributors were discussing Santorum's recent surge in the polls, when Colmes brought up Santorum's infant son who died just two hours after being born.
Colmes said, "Once [voters] get a load of some of the crazy things he’s said and done, like taking his two-hour-old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real…"
Lowry interjected and called Colmes' comment a "cheap shot." "It's not, it's not a cheap shot," Colmes said.
Lowry continued to cut off Colmes and said, "To say it’s ‘crazy,' something that’s that personal and harmful as losing a child, and to mock it, to mock him like that, is really beyond the pale and beneath you.” Lowry added that the remark was "contemptible."
Colmes doubled down and said, "I’m not mocking the losing of the child, but what I’m saying is I think it shows a certain unusual attitude to take a two-hour baby home that died to play with his other children.”
At a Monday evening event in Iowa, Santorum called Colmes' remark a "cheap shot," and fought back tears while discussing how his family handled the death of their newborn son.
Colmes later tweeted that he spoke to Santorum and his wife to apologize for making a "hurt comment." The candidate accepted his apology.
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