Conservative thinker, Fox News pundit Charles Krauthammer dies at 68

Charles Krauthammer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and Fox News Channel pundit known for his neoconservative, hawkish worldview, has died. He was 68 years old.

“Everyone at @FoxNews is saddened to report that our dear friend -- a giant of our industry -- Charles Krauthammer has passed away,” tweeted Thursday the chief White House correspondent for the cable news channel favored among Republicans.

In a farewell note to readers published earlier this month in the Washington Post, Krauthammer said he was suffering from “aggressive” cancer and he had but weeks to live.

“I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking,” he wrote. “I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.” “I leave this life with no regrets.”

Right-wing intellectual

A right-wing intellectual and ardent defender of Israel who helped shape conservative thought on foreign policy -- including President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” -- Krauthammer began writing columns for the Post in 1984.

“His work was far-reaching and influential -- and while his voice will be deeply missed, his ideas and values will always be a part of our country,” Bush, who launched the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, said in a statement.

Though he championed a raft of conservative causes, the polemicist did not shy from criticizing Donald Trump, dubbing him a “moral disgrace” after the Republican president failed to unequivocally denounce a white nationalist rally that ended in bloodshed.

Born March 13, 1950 in Manhattan, Irving Charles Krauthammer moved to Montreal at age five with his Jewish refugee parents. In his first year at Harvard Medical School, he became a quadriplegic after a swimming pool accident.

After working as a psychiatry resident in Massachusetts and an official at the US Health and Human Services Department in Washington, he was briefly a speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale.
He then kicked off his writing career in 1981 at The New Republic.