Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes managed last week to tie the controversy over President Trump’s call to a Gold Star widow to NFL protests over racial injustice and what Gingrich claimed is the “truly anti-American” nature of much of the left.

In a conversation with Gingrich on his radio program on October 19, Starnes called criticism of Trump’s comments to Myeshia Johnson an “ugly attempt by the media to take a swipe at the president.”

“There’s a bloc of people, unfortunately, who hate Trump so deeply that they spend all day every day trying to find some way to smear him or attack him or defame him and it distorts things,” Gingrich replied.

He added that he tells audiences who criticize Trump that they’re getting their information “from reporters and systems that dislike him so deeply they couldn’t tell the truth if their life depended on it.”

“I think this ties right back in to this National Football League debacle with the national anthem, where American values are just under attack, Mr. Speaker,” Starnes said.

Gingrich replied: “Well, they’re absolutely under attack….What Trump has done in part is he’s brought out into the open how truly anti-American much of the left is and how much it stands for a set of values that all of us, if you looked at it carefully, would find horrifying.”