Pulitzer-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer enjoyed visiting Naples
Charles Krauthammer loved Naples, and the city loved him back.
The political commentator, author, syndicated columnist and physician who died Thursday at 68 visited Southwest Florida often, notably as a speaker at the Ave Maria School of Law.
Krauthammer, whose column for years ran in the Naples Daily News, had a loyal following in Collier County. He most recently spoke in Naples in February 2017 at the Naples Grande Beach Resort.
Before that event, Daily News columnist Brent Batten interviewed Krauthammer, who said he always enjoyed trips to Southwest Florida.
“What a great thing it must be to live in what must be the closest thing on the planet to heaven,” Krauthammer told the Daily News. “It’s always a pleasure to visit Naples, especially in the Washington winter. That’s why I’m pro-global warming. I want your climate, but I don’t want to move.”
Krauthammer spoke twice at the Ave Maria School of Law’s Signature Event, an annual celebration that features a distinguished national or international speaker.
In an emailed statement, Ave Maria School of Law President and Dean Kevin Cieply said the school was thankful for Krauthammer’s belief in its mission.
“We are grateful to Dr. Krauthammer for sharing his extraordinary intellect, his relentless pursuit of the truth, his belief in this great country, his example of personal courage and grit, and for his great humor,” Cieply wrote. “He made such a tremendous difference in so many lives. We were blessed to witness his greatness and blessed to have had his sage insight on the most important issues of our time.”
Krauthammer’s relationship with the law school was forged through the late Judge Robert Bork, who taught the school’s “Moral Foundations of the Law” course. Bork was solicitor general in the U.S. Department of Justice from March 1973 to 1977. He was a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit between 1982 and 1988.
Krauthammer also addressed an Ave Maria law school audience in March 2014 at a packed ballroom at the beachside Ritz-Carlton in North Naples. The conservative commentator and author that night discussed a “great debate” over the size, scope and power of the federal government. And the debate, he said at the time, centered on the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."
“It’s about equality versus liberty,” Krauthammer told the Naples crowd estimated at about 500. “It’s a classic continuation of the 200-year-old debate between left and right, since the French Revolution.”
Before that event, Krauthammer gave an interview to the Daily News, discussing everything from former President Bill Clinton to his own book “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics.”
“Politics is sovereign,” he said. “Everything else depends on getting it right. If you don’t, all things noble, elegant and beautiful can be swept away,” as what happened in the Holocaust.
His columns often criticized former President Barack Obama and praised President Donald Trump, though Krauthammer wasn’t a huge fan initially. One such column, titled “Our Democracy not so decadent after all” in March 2017, was published in the Daily News, declaring Trump was proving to be a successful president by snubbing the establishment.
“The strongman cometh, it was feared. Who and what would stop him?” Krauthammer wrote. “Two months into the Trumpian era, we have our answer. Our checks and balances have turned out to be quite vibrant.”
TV special Friday night
Suzanne Scott, CEO of FOX News, said in email that Fox plans to air an hourlong special, “Charles Krauthammer: His Words,” at 9 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday. The special includes reflections by Bret Baier, Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Fred Barnes and George Will.
Naples Daily News reporter Annika Hammerschlag contributed to this story.