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A Fox News contributor has inspired outrage following his comments on the network about Gabby Petito, the travel blogger whose remains were found in Wyoming over the weekend after having gone missing in August.
During his appearance on Fox News, regular contributor Raymond Arroyo slagged off the story of Petito's disappearance and the subsequent manhunt for her fiancé Brian Laundrie as nothing more than a "huge distraction" and mocked the story as a "Lifetime movie."
According to Arroyo, we should be focusing our attention solely on the migrant crisis at the southern border with Mexico, because we apparently can't think about more than one topic at a time, or something.
TikToker @more_smores uploaded a clip of Arroyo's comments to TikTok, which can be seen below.
Arroyo said:
"With all that's happening in the world, what's happening in our southern border and abroad and at home, I think this entire story is a huge distraction. Forgive me."
Quick tip: If you need to qualify a statement with "forgive me," it might be a statement you want to keep to yourself. Arroyo then went on to mock the Petito story.
"This is like a Lifetime Movie, an ongoing miniseries for America. But I think it's basically a local story. It's a missing person."
That last bit is why Arroyo's comments angered so many--Petito was, in fact, a person, and her story is not a Lifetime movie.
Petito went missing in August during a cross-country road trip in a camping van with Launderie, who subsequently returned home to his parents' Florida home in September in Petito's van, without Petito. He refused to cooperate with authorities and has since disappeared himself.
On September 19, the very day Arroyo made his comments, Petito's remains were found in a remote part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
On social media, Arroyo's dismissive comments about a person's murder left many incensed.
@gabrielle.legg/TikTok
@gabrielleacolleen/TikTok
@marrlonz/TikTok
@elecktralittle1894/TikTok
@collabolla96/TikTok
The viral coverage of Petito's case may have led to at least one major tip for law enforcement, after another pair of travel vloggers alerted the FBI that they had driven by what turned out to be Petito's abandoned van. It was parked very close to where her remains were subsequently found.