Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, is taking MSNBC, its executives, and host Joy Reid to task over comments that Reid made about “white Christian” voters in Iowa and how they impacted the recent caucuses that Trump handily dominated. Donahue did so in a letter sent to MSNBC President Rashida Jones and Comcast President Michael Cavanagh on Wednesday, January 17.
As background, Reid is an opinion host on MSNBC. During her post-Iowa Caucuses broadside, she both bemoaned “white Christians” supposedly being “overrepresented” in Iowa and claimed that such people feel entitled to dominate people of color across the country by putting Trump in office.
She said, “These are white Christians, that this is a state that is over-represented are over-represented by white Christians that are going to participate in these caucuses, especially tonight. I, today, earlier today reached out to Robert Jones, Robbie Jones, from the Public Religion Research Institute, knowing that we were going to talk about Iowa and this is a hyper-Evangelical, white state. And he said the following to me: ‘Iowa is about 61%, white Christian, the country as a whole is approximately 41%, white Christian.’”
She then claimed that she couldn’t see a normal political reason for why the would support Trump because he delivers only losses, saying, “And in Iowa, we’re talking about evangelical white Christians if he said the following, because I asked him, what do they get out of supporting Donald Trump because he keeps losing he keeps delivering losses and losses, losses.”
Mr. Jones told her, apparently, that they vote for Trump because they want to dominate the country through him. “They see themselves as the rightful inheritors of this country. And Trump has promised to give it back to them,” Reid quoted Jones as saying.
Continuing, Reid said, “All the things that we think about, about electability about you know, what are people gaming out or none of that matters when you believe that God has given you this country that it is yours and that everyone who is not a white conservative Christian is a is a fraudulent American is a less a less real American, then you don’t care about electability you care about what God has given.”
Watch her here:
Joy Reid Attacks Iowa Christians
President Donohue responded to those comments with a powerful letter addressed to MSNBC President Rashida Jones. He said, “Recent anti-Christian attacks by MSNBC hosts and guests demand a vigorous network response. On January 16, MSNBC guest Tara Setmayer, representing the Lincoln Project, smeared Christians when she referred to them as a ‘death cult.’ She also accused evangelical Christians of being a national liability. ‘Not only have they failed America, but they’ve failed Christianity.’ On January 15, MSNBC host Joy Reid complained that Iowa has too many ‘white Christians,’ saying they are overrepresented ‘in the caucuses.’ She attributed to them the conviction that ‘everyone who is not a white conservative Christian is a fraudulent American, is a less-real American.’”
Continuing, he added, “If a guest or host on MSNBC said that Muslims are a “death cult,” there would be repercussions. If it were said that Jews have failed both America and Judaism, there would be repercussions. If it were said that atheists believe that everyone who is not a non-believer is a fraudulent American, there would be repercussions.”
Concluding, President Donohue demanded MSNBC take action to address the anti-Christian rhetoric, saying, “Why have there been no repercussions regarding the anti-Christian remarks made by MSNBC guests and hosts? Bigotry against any demographic group should never be given air time on television. I would appreciate a response to this serious issue.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
