On today’s Morning Joe, Defender of the Faith Joe Scarborough ruled that an evangelical leader who expressed his support for Trump was guilty of “depravity,” and “straight-out blasphemy.”
What a display of religious illiteracy. Scarborough was outraged that the pastor had pointed out that, like Trump, Jesus had been convicted of crimes, and yet Christians worship Jesus. Blasphemy would be saying Trump is Christ, not that he’s persecuted like Christ.
Nodding along like Scarborough’s own Ed McMahon-style sidekick, Willie Geist agreed: “There used to be a word for that: blasphemy.”
Scarborough didn’t specify the punishment to be doled out to the pastor whom he condemned for blasphemy. Perhaps Joe will take inspiration from history: we’re just a few days past the anniversary of Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, having been burned at the stake.
Eugene Robinson, who doubles as a Washington Post columnist and an MSNBC analyst, had kicked off the conversation, playing off his current WashPost column: “Here’s how Trump could make America great.” You can guess Robinson’s predictable answer: Trump should drop out of the race.
Careful what you wish for, Gene! Before Trump wrapped up the nomination, polls showed any of the other likely contenders would run stronger than he would against Biden! Back in January, for example, a CBS poll showed Nikki Haley trouncing Biden by nine points, whereas Trump only edged him by two.
But back to Scarborough. Now that Joe has established himself as the arbiter of Christian morality and theology, beyond the unidentified pastor in question, how many more of the millions of evangelicals who support Trump will Defender of the Faith Joe banish for blasphemy?
Notes:
- Scarborough claimed that Trump was convicted of 34 “different” felonies. Wrong. As this CBS News article explains, Trump was convicted of 34 counts of one felony: “falsification of business records” in connection with the way that Michael Cohen was reimbursed for his payment to Stormy Daniels. But DA Bragg managed to manufacture 34 counts by charging every check, invoice, and voucher connected to the reimbursement as a separate crime.
- Robinson claimed that in contrast with Trump, who has been convicted of 34 felonies, “the only thing [Biden] is guilty of is living to 81.” Not so. Last year, we caught Robinson, in a bit of embarrassing sycophancy, claiming that Biden is “sharp as a tack.” There are plenty of octogenarians with all their marbles. But as Robinson would surely admit in a candid, private moment, Biden ain’t one of them.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/4/24
6:07 am EDTEUGENE ROBINSON: Any other moment in our history, a candidate for IIany office who was convicted mid-campaign of 34 felony charges, would have been out, out of the race before the jury foreman had finished the 34 guilty verdicts, right? It would have just been automatic, unthinkable that, that someone would stay in any race given the status as a 34-time felon . . . All these sort of, you know, hand-wringing Democrats and chin-stroking pundits, they’ve been calling for Joe Biden to step aside. And the only thing he is guilty of is living to 81, you know?
SCARBOROUGH: Gene brings up such a great point, Willie. In the good old days, back, back when I was in Washington, I mean, heck, if somebody got indicted of 34 counts, they immediately resigned from Congress and, you know, went to prepare their defense.
Here, Donald Trump gets, gets convicted 34 times, 34 different felonies, and, of course, you have United States Senators who are trying to use it as a badge of honor that their guy is being persecuted by the state.
WILLIE GEIST: Yeah, I mean, martyrdom, right? I mean, he’s been compared to religious figures, without irony, by members of the United States Congress, by people on TV, as a rallying cry behind him. And that’s the, that’s the Trump way, though,isn’t it? Never surrender. Never apologize for anything. Put your head down, and keep moving. And pretend, despite all the facts around you, that you are the victim.
SCARBOROUGH: And always, always play the victim. I mean, that’s —
GEIST: Yes.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s always it. Always play the victim. Always play the martyr.
You know, he was asked in, in this weekend, Fox and Friends interview, about evangelicals supporting him.We even saw people that used to be — I just saw shocking things by evangelical so-called leaders. One of them having Trump next to Jesus on a cross, saying, why wouldn’t you vote for somebody who’s been convicted? You worship somebody who was convicted.
And that shows you, just the depravity that, that, that many of these people are willing to sink to. It’s just straight out blasphemy.
GEIST: I was going to say, there used to be a word for that: blasphemy.