On Wednesday night, CNN hosted a town hall meeting featuring Donald Trump as he seeks the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
It was a disaster. An embarrassment for CNN, the country and truth itself.
Between inane claims about about abortion (no, Democrats do not want to kill babies after birth), continuing to claim that the 2020 election was rigged (he lost fair and square), making fun of E. Jean Carroll (who had just beat him in a court case about him sexually abusing and then defaming her), defending the Jan 6th insurrectionists while smearing officers who fought against them and, all-around basic lying, Trump mad a mockery out of the CNN. And in front of a crowd of supporters who apparently the network handpicked.
The town hall was justifiably condemned.
But apparently someone ignored the forest of it all to settle for one big tree. Family Research Council president Tony Perkins praised Trump for the town hall. In a piece in FRC's Washington Stand, Trump Townhall Underscores Life as a 2024 Issue, Perkins completely ignored all of what transpired and talked about Trump's supposed commitment to life. I will give you a small excerpt:
During his Wednesday town hall in New Hampshire, he said of his pro-life record, “I am honored to have done what I did.” President Trump noted several times during the event that pro-abortion activists are radical. And radicals are unreasonable and never satisfied. This is why, in last November’s elections, Democrats spent at least $320 million in advertising to attack the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The Biden administration has authorized nearly half a billion dollars of taxpayer funds that can be used to subsidize abortions and abortion businesses. Republicans spend only a fraction of this amount celebrating unborn life.
Here's the part which really catches my attention:
I deeply appreciate the pro-life, pro-family policies that President Trump’s administration advanced. As we move into the 2024 presidential election cycle, my role will not be to endorse in the primary election but to work with the candidates, like President Trump, to ensure the issues impacting faith, family, and freedom are understood and advanced. My focus will be ensuring that the sanctity of human life, upholding the true, God-given purpose of human sexuality, and the myriad policies that affect the family — ranging from religious freedom to tax policy — remain front and center. It is encouraging to see that Mr. Trump remains committed to defending the little ones in the womb.
Just as much as we need a reminder that Donald Trump is an incompetent disaster and has no place near the White House, we also need to be reminded that conservative evangelical leaders like Tony Perkins are single-minded power hungry fascists who have no problem with weaponizing religion and faith in attempts to control other people's bodies and minds.
Let's not be fooled by the language Perkins uses. He doesn't support Trump because of any commitment to life. He supports Trump because Trump gives him wants when it comes to the issue of abortion. And for all of his posing about Christianity and values, Perkins is perfectly willing ignore the other things about Trump
such as the false claims that he won in 2020,
the downplaying of the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol,
his botched COVID response which cost scores of lives,
and the many, many other times that Trump has shown that he doesn't give a damn about anything but himself.
Perkins is similar to Trump in that he simply doesn't give a damn about anything but what he wants. He claims that Trump's town hall underscores that life is a 2024 issue, but whose life he is talking about?
Not the election officials who have been threatened, harassed and basically pushed out of their jobs because of Trump's lie about a rigged election.
Not those who suffered unbelievable violence on Jan 6th because of Trump continuing to lie about the 2020 election. Definitely not anyone who died because of the violence that day
Not the scores of Americans who died and continue to die in connection to how Trump and his administration botched the response to the COVID pandemic. Not to mention others who are alive but continue to suffer.
It all comes down to the fact that idiots like Trump are a dime a dozen. They always come and go. It's people like Perkins who we really need to look out for. It's ironic seeing how so many have accused Perkins of coddling up to a devil like Trump. The truth is Trump was merely the puppet.
Conservative evangelicals like Perkins are the devils.
