Greg Gutfeld Defends Uvalde Cops, Suggests They Didn’t Act Due to ‘Fear of Violating a Rule’

Greg Gutfeld went where few if any pundits have gone: he played devil’s advocate and defended the officers who responded to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Wednesday’s installment of The Five featured four of the hosts reacting with horror to the inaction of law enforcement officers to the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in May. Video released yesterday provided visual evidence of what was previously reported: for 77 minutes, as many as 19 officers idled in a hallway near the classroom in which a gunman was committing mass murder.

Eventually, a Border Patrol unit entered the classroom and killed the shooter.

When Gutfeld’s turn came, he noted the panel’s condemnatory consensus of the police response and offered a defense of the officers.

“Everybody’s in agreement here, so maybe I’m just gonna be the devil’s advocate for the sake of this show,” he began. “I’m always reluctant to condemn people in these situations because I don’t know how I would react.”

Gutfeld said the officers appeared to be “stalling” and stated, “I can’t mind-read.”

The remark prompted an interruption from Martha MacCallum.

“They’re running backward here,” she said as b-roll footage of the cops aired. “This is after the shots are fired.”

“I’m just trying to make a point,” he said, as MacCallum appeared to sigh offscreen.

“I can’t mind-read, right?” he continued. “So I can’t definitely say, ‘Oh this is cowardice.’ It might be a fear of violating the rule in a risk-averse terrain.”

Gutfeld said police are under pressure “not just to stop crime, but also to keep their careers from being destroyed. Their careers are destroyed.”

He concluded that if police had acted and made a mistake, they would have been condemned.

“But if they had taken the initiative that wasn’t authorized and it didn’t go well, well then we’d hang them out to dry too,” he said. “If they actually took the initiative and kids had died, we’d be going, ‘Why did you do that?’ So there’s no way to win in this except they didn’t do their job, and I’m saying that. But I think that maybe, you know, let’s not hang them right now forever. That’s me.”

Gutfeld’s take was met by a few seconds of silence before MacCallum teased the next segment.

Watch above via Fox News.