Trump Attacks Faiths Of Romney, Pelosi At Prayer Breakfast
WHITFIELD: All right. Religion took center stage in the world of politics this week. President Trump at the "National Prayer Breakfast" calling out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitt Romney after Romney voted to convict the president on one article of impeachment.</s>SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.</s>PRES. DONALD TRUMP, POTUS: I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D) HOUSE SPEAKER: I don't hate anyone. I pray for the president all the time.</s>PRES. TRUMP: Nor do I like people who say I pray for you when they know that that's not so.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me right now to discuss, Jack Jenkins, a national reporter for Religion News Service and the author of "American Profits: The religious roots of progressive politics and the ongoing fight for the soul of the country", and Mark Galli, the former editor in chief of the Evangelical Publication, "Christianity Today", Mark making headlines not long ago after writing an op-ed calling for President Trump to be removed from office back in December. Good to see you both.</s>MARK GALLI, FORMER EDITOR IN CHIEF, CHRISTIANITY TODAY: Good to be with you.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. So, Jack, you first. Romney and Pelosi, you know, have each been very out spoken about the role that faith has played in their lives and these attacks by the president at the "National Prayer Breakfast", you know, are very, very personal for them. So, you know, did that insult, you know, or galvanize people?</s>JACK JENKINS, NATIONAL REPORTER, RELIGION NEWS SERVICE: Well, I think what's interesting about this entire impeachment process is there's been a lot of God talk. You've heard both Republicans and Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talk about scripture and invoke it throughout this process. Now, it speaks a lot to how there's been some religious debate in political circles of late. And Republicans don't have ownership over, you know, invoking religion in a political sphere as they might have once had. And I don't think it's -- the critiques that Trump has made are playing particularly well even among religious conservatives. I mean, one of the things to remember about --</s>WHITFIELD: But this was different.</s>JENKINS: Right.</s>WHITFIELD: I mean, this was something remarkable this week. And so, I'm wondering how it is being gauged. I mean, that really is kind of the question I guess I'm trying to get at which is, how is that gauge that the president would have such remarks saying that he doesn't like when people use faith as justification for doing what they think is wrong -- what they know is wrong?</s>GALLI: Well, the thing -- the thing you have to realize is that it's not that unusual. I mean, living kind of at the ground level of, certainly, evangelical religion, I can assure you that people on the right are constantly questioning the faith on people on the left and people on the left are constantly criticizing the faith, questioning the faiths of the people on the right. So, this is like part and parcel of the conversation that's going on in religious political circles now. So, he's especially egregious for doing it in a national setting, at a prayer breakfast. I mean, he basically violated two of Jesus' commands in one fell swoop; not to judge and to love your enemies. But the fact is, this is part of the national conversation that most people aren't aware of that's pretty disturbing to me.</s>WHITFIELD: And then, really, that turned out to just be the starting point, you know, for the president, you know because later on, he would double down on, you know, attacking Romney and this is just within the same day. Listen.</s>PRES. TRUMP: Then, you have some that use religion as a crutch. They never used it before. An article written today never heard him use it before. But today, you know, it's one of those things. But, you know, it's a failed presidential candidate so things can happen when you fail so badly running for president.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. So, Jack, pick up on your point.</s>JENKINS: Yes. What I was saying is that in people who were in the room at the "National Prayer Breakfast", the reports are that it -- this did not play particularly well, these kinds of attacks. And there are some more moderate evangelicals as well as Mormons who have actually been pretty critical of Trump for quite some time and that's kind of the group that Mitt Romney kind of spoke of and spoke for in his, you know, conviction vote that don't respond particularly well to these critiques. And I think, you know, there's very small margins that the president is looking at in 2020 and he doesn't have a whole lot of votes to lose. So, these are a mixture of, you know, shoring up the base and there are evangelicals who celebrated this sort of rhetoric. But there are others for whom this may not play particularly well.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. So, let's broaden it out a little bit because Senator, you know, Bernie Sanders was asked about how his Jewish heritage impacts his view of the world, in politic at a CNN town hall last week. Listen to his response.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think at a very early age even before my political thoughts were developed, I was aware of the horrible things that human beings can do to other people in the name of racism or white nationalism or in this case, Naziism. And in the community that I lived in, there were people -- when you go downtown and you shop -- people had their tattoos from the concentration camps on their arm. How horrible people can be to other people in the names of racial superiority, or et cetera, has certainly has been with me for my entire life.</s>WHITFIELD: So, Mark, you know, what do moments like this do, you know, for a candidate, when they open up about their faith?</s>GALLI: Well, whenever you open up about your faith, it's a twin-edged sword. On the one hand, you are signaling that you are in some sense accountable to a higher power, a higher level of moral thought. On the other level, you -- now, all your actions will be judged by your supposed moral and theological and spiritual commitments. So, it cuts both ways. And I think it's better for the nation, the more people will admit to their religious and theological influences I think that's good. It doesn't necessarily solve a lot of problems but it does bring -- it does take issues and moves them to a higher level of conversation. Unfortunately, that higher level of conversation right now is not very high at all. But it has a potential of doing that.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. Jack, how do you see it?</s>JENKINS: I do think it's also worth noting that Bernie Sanders -- this is him kind of really embracing his Jewish identity in a way that he did not in 2016. And I think what happens at the end of that same clip is he kind of connects that, you know, claiming a Jewish identity proudly. He's doing that in the context in which there are spikes of anti-Semitism and spikes of hatred and acts of hatred perpetuated against Jews. And so, he kind of sees -- claiming a Jewish identity as kind of a protest against those sorts of actions. And he, you know, ascribes some level of that divisiveness to President Trump. So, this is also a critique of the president at some level.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Jack Jenkins, Mark Galli, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you very much.</s>JENIKINS: Thanks for having me.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Hollywood's biggest night is just hours away. And this year's award show could make history. CNN is live on the red carpet next.