"This kid's not scared. He's not scared of the NRA. He's not intimidated and scared by Laura Ingraham ... Half the Republican party is hiding under the table, under their bed. They're so scared ... Not these kids, though" - @SteveSchmidtSES w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/QZE5I6zmv3 — Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) March 29, 2018

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said it came down to one characteristic that led Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg to get an apology from Fox News host Laura Ingraham: fearlessness.

“Maybe that’s what happens after you’ve been down range of an AR-15 that kills your classmates and comes close to killing you,” Schmidt said Thursday on Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show. “You lose all fear. Because this kid’s not scared. He’s not scared of the NRA. He’s not intimidated and scared by Laura Ingraham.”

Schmidt said that Hogg and his classmates are not like the elected Republican officials who are “scared to death of Fox News, of Laura Ingraham, of Rush Limbaugh.”

Schmidt’s comments came as several advertisers announced they would pull their commercials from Ingraham’s Fox News show after she mocked Hogg on Twitter for not getting into certain colleges.

Hogg and his 14-year-old sister, Lauren, responded to Ingraham’s attack Wednesday night, calling out the Fox News host for cyberbullying students.

“Coming from a 14-year-old, please grow up,” Lauren tweeted, while her brother called for an advertiser boycott.

As companies announced they would move their commercials, Ingraham issued a rare apology Thursday for her comments.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.