So, why don’t we let The New York Times set the tone for this odd development in the 2016 Republican primaries:
In his most audacious attack yet on a revered public figure, Donald J. Trump veered into risky political territory on Thursday as he denounced Pope Francis, seeking to galvanize Republicans who worry about border security and appeal to evangelical voters who regard Francis as too liberal.
His most audacious attack yet. Remember that as we delve into what happened here.
This started when Pope Francis was on his way back from a six-day sojourn through Mexico. A reporter asked him what he thought about Trump’s plan to put a stop to illegal immigration. Francis said, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel.”
Okay, so already we can see that Trump did not “launch” an attack. His comments, which we’ll get to momentarily, were a response to an attack from the pontiff.
In a statement, Trump said that it was “disgraceful” for the Pope to cast doubt on his religious beliefs. “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith,” he said. “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president.”
All right, so that’s the whole thing. That’s all there is, other than some subsequent Trump comments that downplayed the “feud.” Now let’s take a look at some of the ways the Times described this in the article.
– the presidential campaign’s most revealing example of Mr. Trump’s emotional instinct to make punching bags of those who cross him
– “Mr. Trump now adds Pope Francis to his list of people who, after having a policy disagreement, he insults and slurs,” said Russ Schriefer…
– many of these voters are Catholics who, whether they like Francis or not, may blanch at Mr. Trump’s denouncing the pope for advocating the church’s position favoring compassion toward immigrants.
If you need to, go back and read Trump’s original response. In what world is what Francis said a “policy disagreement” and what Trump said an attack filled with “insults and slurs”?
Donald Trump has been relentlessly un-PC and controversial since throwing his hat into the race, but he is not nearly as outrageous as the liberal media makes him out to be. This is a prime example of the media rushing to condemn him for comments he simply didn’t make. What is it about the Pope that makes him immune to criticism? He’s just a man. Sorry, but it’s true. And if he slammed Hillary Clinton for not being a Christian because of her stance on abortion, the media wouldn’t have one word to say about any Democrat who took umbrage.
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