Kirsten Powers: Conservatives Are ‘Maligned’

USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers argued that conservatives are “maligned” “at a level that it hasn’t been in the past” on Tuesday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.

After host Bill O’Reilly opened by defending Ted Cruz against some of his critics in the media and pointing out that Cruz’s resume has been scrutinized while Obama’s wasn’t, before arguing that conservatives are unfairly attacked, Powers said “I certainly agree with what you’re saying about how conservatives are maligned, and I think it’s at a level that it hasn’t been in the past, and where views and disagreements really are treated as — bigotry, as phobias, as — not as just disagreements that we as Americans used to have over policies. It’s now if you criticize Islam, you have an illness, you’re phobic. Even things that I disagree with, I support same-sex marriage, but a lot of liberals will say ‘well, someone who opposes same-sex marriage is a bigot…they have a phobia, they’re a homophobe,’ which I don’t agree with.”

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