Daniel Hampton
October 11, 2024
Reading the Bible (Shutterstock)
A journalist and author told comedian Bill Maher on Friday night that "clear-eyed" evangelicals view former President Donald Trump as an "imperfect" protector from a "culture that has slipped away and a country they don't recognize."
Tim Alberta, a staffer at The Atlantic, joined "Real Time" on HBO to talk about evangelicals his book "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism."
Maher said he was glad to have Alberta on the show to talk about the key voting subgroup of evangelicals, noting that white evangelicals "break huge" for Trump at more than 80 percent.
The comedian cracked a joke about how he could ask why the group supports "the least religious" and "most immoral" man in the world, but said he'd rather know if evangelicals see a "bigger picture" than the left sees in Trump.
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Alberta replied that he sees the group as having what he called a "persecution complex."
While that may seem "silly" to outsiders, not so to them, he said.
"For folks inside the church who believe that the country is slipping away from them, that they no longer recognize the Christian America of their youth, and they believe that Donald Trump is an imperfect vessel for God's perfect will," said Alberta. "And they look at him and say, 'Well, the barbarians are at the gates, maybe we need a barbarian to protect us.'"
Alberta said it resembles a mercenary relationship, as Trump's "bad behavior almost reinforces their support," as a good Christian man wouldn't be as capable of protecting them as Trump. That dynamic allows the former president to have a license to say things that many disagree with.
'So evil': Pro-Trump TV host calls immigrants 'satanic' and 'involved in human sacrifice'
Carl Gibson, AlterNet
October 12, 2024 9:00AM ET
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump dances during his rally at Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, U.S., October 11, 2024.
Carl Gibson, AlterNet
October 12, 2024 9:00AM ET
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump dances during his rally at Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, U.S., October 11, 2024.
REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing
A core campaign plank in former President Donald Trump's third bid for the White House is his promise to deport millions of immigrants. A far-right network host took that claim to new depths ahead of a Trump rally on Friday.
Prior to the rally in Aurora, Colorado, host Bobby McNeily of the Right Side Broadcasting Network — an openly pro-Trump outlet — prepped audiences by insisting that immigrants in Aurora were primarily affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TDA), calling them "so evil."
He went on to baselessly conflate the gang members with other Aurora migrants, suggesting they were pedophiles and even that they were participants in occult practices.
"These people, they are are so evil. They are not your run of the mill criminal. They are people that are satanic. They are involved in human sacrifice," he said. "They are raping men, women, and children — especially underaged children."
Trump has seized on a narrative that has spread among right-wing media outlets that TDA members had taken over the city of Aurora, and highlighted one incident of gang members running amok in a handful of apartment buildings.
Aurora police have identified 10 TDA members in the city, though law enforcement said the gang's activity is "isolated."
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman — a Republican — has maintained that there is no migrant gang problem in his city and that Trump's claims are not accurate. He invited the former president to accompany him on a tour of Aurora as "an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a considerably safe city — not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs."
"My public offer to show him our community and meet with our police chief for a briefing still stands," Coffman told the New York Times. He added that the narrative of migrant gangs taking over apartment buildings was overblown.
“The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated,” Coffman said. “The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.”
READ MORE: 'Go back where you came from': Small-town Pennsylvania residents run off far-right YouTuber
In the final weeks of the campaign, Trump is staying out of swing states and is holding rallies in blue states like California, Colorado, Illinois and New York.
This could be a strategy to assist swing district Republicans in liberal states in an effort to keep the lower chamber of Congress in Republican hands. However, one Republican strategist said the ex-president was making a mistake by choosing "optics and vibes" over trying to win over voters in the states most likely to decide the election.Trump has zeroed in on the Haitian migrant communities in Springfield, Ohio and Charleroi, Pennsylvania as groups of immigrants he would deport shortly after taking office should he win the November election
A core campaign plank in former President Donald Trump's third bid for the White House is his promise to deport millions of immigrants. A far-right network host took that claim to new depths ahead of a Trump rally on Friday.
Prior to the rally in Aurora, Colorado, host Bobby McNeily of the Right Side Broadcasting Network — an openly pro-Trump outlet — prepped audiences by insisting that immigrants in Aurora were primarily affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TDA), calling them "so evil."
He went on to baselessly conflate the gang members with other Aurora migrants, suggesting they were pedophiles and even that they were participants in occult practices.
"These people, they are are so evil. They are not your run of the mill criminal. They are people that are satanic. They are involved in human sacrifice," he said. "They are raping men, women, and children — especially underaged children."
Trump has seized on a narrative that has spread among right-wing media outlets that TDA members had taken over the city of Aurora, and highlighted one incident of gang members running amok in a handful of apartment buildings.
Aurora police have identified 10 TDA members in the city, though law enforcement said the gang's activity is "isolated."
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman — a Republican — has maintained that there is no migrant gang problem in his city and that Trump's claims are not accurate. He invited the former president to accompany him on a tour of Aurora as "an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a considerably safe city — not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs."
"My public offer to show him our community and meet with our police chief for a briefing still stands," Coffman told the New York Times. He added that the narrative of migrant gangs taking over apartment buildings was overblown.
“The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated,” Coffman said. “The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.”
READ MORE: 'Go back where you came from': Small-town Pennsylvania residents run off far-right YouTuber
In the final weeks of the campaign, Trump is staying out of swing states and is holding rallies in blue states like California, Colorado, Illinois and New York.
This could be a strategy to assist swing district Republicans in liberal states in an effort to keep the lower chamber of Congress in Republican hands. However, one Republican strategist said the ex-president was making a mistake by choosing "optics and vibes" over trying to win over voters in the states most likely to decide the election.Trump has zeroed in on the Haitian migrant communities in Springfield, Ohio and Charleroi, Pennsylvania as groups of immigrants he would deport shortly after taking office should he win the November election
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