Abbott draws fire over Hitler remark about church shooting

AUSTIN -- The Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday strongly criticized a statement by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott about the tragic church shooting in Sutherland Springs, in which he tried to put the massacre in context by saying evil has been present from the early times of the Bible to the Middle Ages to Hitler.

In an interview Sunday on "Outnumbered Overtime" on Fox News, Abbott commented that the church shooting, as well as recent terrorist attacks in New York, London and Las Vegas, are "acts of evil that are taking place.

"Because they are close in time to us right now we think this is something heavy right now, but put this in the context of history," Abbott said. "Look at what happened with Hitler during the horrific events during that era, and Mussolini and go back in time before that to the earlier ages, the Middle Ages, when people committed horrific crimes.

"And when you go back through the history of the Bible, there was evil that took place from earliest stages of the Bible to post-New Testament, so evil is something that has permeated this world.

"And that force of evil must be combated with the force of good that is offered by God and it is so heartwarming to see the people of this community turn to God, turn to hope, turn to the promise of good overcoming evil."

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