Gowdy calls for GOP to 'embrace law as a unifying, equalizing force,' adds system 'could use some tweaking'
'When I hear "law and order," I think it means something different to a white person than a person of color'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Republicans need to embrace law as a unifying, equalizing force,” Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy told “Outnumbered Overtime” on Thursday after President Trump warned his party to stand firm against left-wing causes or find themselves on the losing end this November.
In an interview with RealClear Politics published Wednesday, the president said America is locked "in a culture war."
“If the Republicans don't toughen up and get smart and get strong and protect our heritage and protect our country," Trump warned. "I think they're going to have a very tough election.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What do you say about where we are right now and the conversation that we really need to be having on the campaign trail?" host Harris Faulkner asked Gowdy.
“The first thing I say is, ‘Thank God for someone like [Sen.] Tim Scott [R-S.C.] in my life,' who constantly reminds me that, when we were kids, we couldn’t go to school together, we couldn’t drink out of the same water fountain. Think about all the progress we have made,” Gowdy answered. “And I need that in my life. I need to focus on the positive.”
“The other thing I would say is Republicans need to embrace law as a unifying, equalizing force,” he continued. “When I hear 'law and order,' I think it means something different to a white person than a person of color, but the law should be equalizing and unifying.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}IVY LEAGUE-TRAINED LAWYER ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO PASS OUT FIREBOMBS TO PROTESTERS
“So when we talk about law and that we’re a country of laws and not men and women, I think we need to do it in a more persuasive way, to see that it could be empowering for minority communities,” Gowdy said later in the interview before acknowledging that people should “admit our justice system could use some tweaking, whether it’s the ratio between cocaine base and cocaine powder, or access to diversion programs, there are legitimate arguments that it has had a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color.
“And this comes from a prosecutor, a 20-year prosecutor."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“So have the conversation, but if all you are doing is committing arson and spray-painting and not getting to know people that have a different viewpoint, then we’ll remain a 50/50 country,” the former House Oversight Committee chairman went on.
Gowdy also responded to Trump's "culture war" remark by saying that he thinks the United States has been in a culture war since the 1960s.
“I think what’s different is what once may have been a slightly level playing field, now Republicans perceive that not only are we fighting against Democrats, but the media, which used to be an impartial, dispassionate referee, is fully advocating on the side of the Democrats,” he explained.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Bill Barr has been attorney general twice,” Gowdy said. “Go contrast the media coverage of his first time as AG [during the George H.W. Bush administration] with what he goes through right now.”
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“So the absence of a referee is one issue,” he continued. “The other issue is an indictment of our political environment. All you have to do now to be successful in politics is validate and ratify what people already believe.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He added that politicians should “try to persuade voters and not just identify what may be silent majorities — and sometimes they’re not silent majorities.”
“I’m about persuasion,” Gowdy said. “In a courtroom we had to persuade all 12 [jurors], in politics you just need to get 50.1 [percent] and I think that’s why our country is as fractured as it is.”
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.