Megyn Kelly reacts to disgusting attack on disabled white man: 'Are these just thugs?'

Megyn Kelly wondered whether a brutal and disturbing attack on a disabled white man by four black assailants should be considered part of a broader conversation.

"Does this one act -- this disgusting, awful, criminal act -- is it any sort of a larger statement on who we are as a people?" Kelly said. "Or are these just thugs -- not young people making stupid decisions. No! Thugs who are torturing a man. But does it say something about us as Americans?”

The assailants held the 18-year-old man, who apparently was acquainted with one of them, captive for at least 24 hours and then streamed Facebook Live video of themselves cutting the victim's clothing and hair with a knife and pushing his head with a foot.

"F*ck Donald Trump," one of the assailants says on the video. "F*ck white people, boy."

Police have arrested four suspects in connection with the case, but no charges have been filed yet.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, but officers said they first want to determine whether "this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving" before filing the hate crime charge.

David Wohl, a Trump-supporting attorney and Fox News contributor, said the case was clearly a hate crime, along with the underlying crimes of kidnapping, torture, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and possibly others.

"What's going to happen here is, if they only prosecute it regarding the state crimes and they leave the hate crime enhancement out, don't forget who's going to be the attorney general of the United States in a couple of months, Jeff Sessions," Wohl said. "I guarantee you he takes this very seriously. This could easily turn into a federal civil rights prosecution, along with several other piggy-backing federal crimes, and the hate crime would definitely be included."

Under Illinois law, hate crimes enhance sentencing for other crimes, such as aggravated assault -- which could turn a one- to three-year sentence into a three- to six-year prison term.

"They need to take this very seriously," Wohl continued. "They can't allow political correctness to dictate the prosecution."