The president of the American Conservative Union defends the deadly airstrikes that killed dozens of Iranian schoolgirls over the weekend, acknowledging that they would still be alive if the United States and Israel had not attacked Iran, but arguing that “they would be alive in a burqa.”

Matt Schlapp made the astonishing comment during Wednesday’s episode of “Piers Morgan: Uncensored,” where discussion of Iran’s ongoing war finally turned to the airstrikes on a girls’ school that killed up to 175 people on Saturday, mostly children under 12.

The issue was raised by panelist Peter Beinart, a journalist and editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, after Morgan criticized Iran for launching attacks on surrounding Gulf states after President Donald Trump and his administration preemptively bombed Iran on Saturday.

“I would like Piers, if he could, to get one of the parents of those 175 children who died in that school that the United States or Israel bombed in southern Iran, and ask the people who support this war to tell them that it was worth it,” Beinart said.

This led Morgan to maintain that it is not clear which country launched the missile that hit the school.

“Piers, even if it was an Iranian missile that was fired in response to the attack by Israel and the United States, right, even if it was an Iranian missile, those girls would still be alive today if the United States and Israel had not launched the attack,” Beinart responded.

He said: “So you’re right, we don’t know who launched the missile, but we know that if the United States and Israel had not attacked a country that poses no serious threat to them (Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, the United States has thousands) those girls would be alive.”

That’s when Schlapp intervened: “They would be alive in a burqa.”

The right-wing panelist had interrupted Morgan to make the cruel comment. The rest of his comments were largely drowned out by the host’s repeated objections to letting him finish, but Schlapp went on to audibly criticize Iran as “a barbaric society” before Morgan continued.

Critics have criticized Schlapp for making no distinction between the Iranian regime and its people, and for failing to realize that women in Iran generally wear hijabs and not burqas.

A photograph released by the Iranian government showing graves being prepared for victims of an airstrike.
A photograph released by the Iranian government showing graves being prepared for victims of an airstrike.

(Department of Foreign Media of Iran/News

Schlapp, whose organization runs the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), was accused in 2023 of sexual misconduct by Republican strategist Carlton Huffman, who claimed that Schlapp had “groped” and “fonked” his groin without consent, which Schlapp denied.

Huffman eventually dropped her lawsuit, but Schlapp was previously accused of trying to kiss a CPAC staff member without consent in 2017 and making unwanted advances to another person in 2022 during a CPAC business trip, The Washington Post reported in 2023.

Beinart argued Wednesday that war with Iran is costly and unnecessary since many Americans cannot even afford “the basic necessities of life” while spending “billions and billions of dollars” to attack a country that “poses no threat to the United States.”

“You think you can go to the American people, who can see that this country is in a desperate situation. [needs] — we don’t provide health care to our people, we have deteriorating infrastructure, people are suffering — and we say, ‘This is the best bang for our buck?’”