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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

Franklin Graham’s Astonishing Ungodly Hypocrisy

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Franklin Graham in 1998 condemned President Bill Clinton’s sins. In 2018, he’s defending President Donald Trump’s.

Franklin Graham, the heir to the Rev. Billy Graham empire and legacy, is nothing like his father. Billy Graham preached to millions, and advised eleven presidents, Democrats and Republicans, including President Barack Obama. Graham, by comparison, preaches on Facebook, and has politicized his ministry to the point where it no longer bears any relationship to the Christian Bible.

Graham is one of President Donald Trump’s top defenders – especially on matters of sin: President Trump’s sins.

In January, as the news that President Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels hush money was shaping, Graham urged the American people to believe Trump’s denials that there was no affair – and to do so for the good of the nation.

“He said he didn’t do it. So okay, let’s say he didn’t do it. But we just have to think of our country,” Graham told MSNBC.

“I found the president to be truthful with me,” Graham said, adding, “we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt.”

“Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue. But I believe at 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago or whatever.”

So, Trump, a proven serial liar, a man who has bragged on tape about sexual assault and about having affairs, deserves “the benefit of the doubt,” because Franklin Graham found him to be “truthful.”

This week, Graham continued his defense of Trump’s sex life.

“I think this thing with Stormy Daniels and so forth is nobody’s business. And we’ve got other business at hand that we need to deal with,” Graham told The Associated Press, as the American Family Association published (via Joe.My.God., video below.)

Graham actually said Trump’s sex life is “nobody’s business.” His paying off a porn star is “nobody’s business.” His affair just months after his youngest son was born is “nobody’s business.”

“I don’t have concern, in a sense, because these things happened many years ago – and there’s such bigger problems in front of us as a nation that we need to be dealing with than other things in his life a long time ago. I think some of these things – that’s for him and his wife to deal with,” Graham insisted.

“I don’t defend those kinds of relationships he had. But the country knew the kind of person he was back then, and they still made the decision to make him the president of the United States,” Graham said, forgetting that 3 million more chose not to make his President.

“I think when the country went after President Clinton, the Republicans, that was a great mistake that should never have happened.”

Really?

Because the Franklin Graham of 2018 sounds very different from the Franklin Graham of 1998.

“Private conduct does have public consequences,” Graham wrote in a 1998 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled, “Clinton’s Sins Aren’t Private.”

“Just look at how many have already been pulled under by the wake of the president’s sin: Mr. Clinton’s wife and daughter, Ms. Lewinsky, her parents, White House staff members, friends and supporters, public officials and an unwitting American public,” Graham wrote.

Does this seem familiar?

He continued, saying, “the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?”

What will prevent him from doing the same to the American public? We already know the answer: nothing.

“A repentant spirit that says, ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I ask for your forgiveness,’ would go a long way toward personal and national healing,” Graham advises.

Americans should not hold their breath.

Graham even looks to the story of King David of the Bible, ironically saying that Nathan in that story “perhaps” was “God’s special prosecutor.”

It’s doubtful Graham would look upon Robert Mueller in that same light.

 

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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

Franklin Graham Serves Up Massively Hypocritical Claims on Vaccines, Trump and the Press in Axios Interview

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Pro-Trump conservative Evangelical leader Franklin Graham sat down with Axios co-founder Mike Allen and served up several hypocritical takes on topics ranging from former President Donald Trump to vaccines to the media.

Perhaps the greatest falsehood was a short exchange on the coronavirus vaccine.

Numerous reports for months make clear conservative Evangelicals are the largest group of Americans refusing to get the vaccine, and given that one in four Americans are evangelical, that alone will make it hard for the U.S. to reach herd immunity.

“Evangelical resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine presents a public health challenge,” NPR reported April 5.

A New York Times headline that same day made the problem ever clearer: “Millions of white evangelicals do not intend to get vaccinated.”

One month earlier an AP/NORC poll found “40% of white evangelical Protestants said they likely won’t get vaccinated.”

According the Graham (who has been encouraging evangelicals to get the shot) evangelicals aren’t the problem.

“Over the last four years as you supported President Trump you saw everything being more politicized, polarized, like do you feel like some of this is on your doorstep?” Axios’s Mike Allen posited in the interview (below.)

“No,” Graham replied. “I appreciate what the President did for our country.”

“Because a lot of his followers,” Allen continued, “a lot of Christians, a lot of evangelical Christians do not believe science, the truth, the press.”

“Many accept vaccines,” Graham said, “Many don’t. And it’s not an evangelical thing,” he claimed, which is false.

Allen also asked Graham about how Trump treated the press.

“Rally after rally, President Trump would say, ‘don’t believe them,’ pointing to the cameras, like, ‘don’t believe the press, don’t believe anyone but me.'”

“And I would have never had said that,” Graham claimed. “And I’ll think this, this is hurting. I think you’ve built a wall. I think it created animosity when it shouldn’t have. Just because somebody disagrees with you, doesn’t mean they’re your enemy.”

“You think it was a mistake for President Trump to demonize the press?” Allen asked point blank.

“No question about it,” Graham replied (video below.)

Here’s Graham doing the exact same thing Trump did, and to help advance Trump’s agenda (all quotes from Graham’s Twitter account):

“I’ve never seen hatred like we’re seeing in our nation today. The mainstream media is so biased & will do whatever they can to attack @POTUS Trump. He has done more for our country in 4 yrs than any president in my lifetime, but that doesn’t matter to agenda-driven media.” Oct. 16, 2020

“Much of the media has lost it. There’s no respect, no honor. What happened to professionalism & to journalists reporting the facts w/no personal agenda?” Dec. 7, 2018

“Never before has there been such a level of hatred as we have seen for Donald Trump from the Democrats & liberal media. Why? It may be because he hasn’t bowed down to them.” Jan. 13, 2020

“The news media are so vicious & relentless in their fault finding & their attacks on the President. It’s just sickening.” Dec. 26, 2018

“I lay much of the blame at the feet of the media for feeding the divisions & pushing their own agendas rather than accurately researching & reporting the news.” Jan. 23, 2019

“For once, I agree with House @SpeakerPelosi—our country is in a constitutional crisis. However, I strongly disagree with her on the cause. I put the blame at her feet & those in the Democratic Party who follow her, along with many in the media. May 10, 2019

“The Mueller report is in—no evidence of collusion. The sad thing is, the US lost 2 years & millions of dollars on investigations as @POTUS @realDonaldTrump’s enemies spouted lies. The liberal media was also culpable in this nightmare.” Mar. 24, 2019

Watch:

 

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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

Boebert, Cawthorn, Greene on List of 101 ‘Pro-Life’ and ‘Pro-Family’ GOPers Who Just Voted Against Pregnant Workers

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The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a bill to protect the rights of pregnant workers, but 101 Republican members of Congress who claim to be both “pro-life” and “pro-family” voted against the legislation.

The bill, sponsored by New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, was first introduced 9 years ago. It passed Friday in a 315-101 vote. All the no votes were from Republicans. No Democrat voted no.

The bill was supported by the right wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which called it “a balanced approach that clarifies an employer’s obligation to accommodate the known limitations of employees and job applicants that accompany pregnancy.”

The website Motherly put it even more simply: “No one should have to choose between their paycheck and a healthy pregnancy.”

Democratic Rep. Val Demings of Florida:

Apparently, 101 Republican lawmakers disagree.

Among the more notable Republicans voting “no” were Lauren Boebert (CO), Kevin Brady (TX), Mo Brooks (AL), Ken Buck (CO), Madison Cawthorn (NC), Liz Cheney (WY), Scott DesJarlais (TN), Virginia Foxx (NC), Louie Gohmert (TX), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Jody Hice (GA), Thomas Massie (KY), and Chip Roy (TX).

Here’s the list of all the lawmakers who voted against pregnant workers:

Aderholt (Alabama)
Allen (Georgia)
Armstrong (North Dakota)
Arrington (Texas)
Babin (Texas)
Baird (Indiana)
Banks (Indiana)
Barr (Kentucky) NAY
Bishop (North Carolina)
Boebert (Colorado)
Brady (Texas)
Brooks (Alabama)
Buck (Colorado)
Budd (North Carolina)
Burchett (Tennessee)
Cammack (Florida)
Carl (Alabama)
Carter (Georgia)
Carter (Texas)
Cawthorn (North Carolina)
Cheney (Wyoming)
Cline (Virginia)
Cloud (Texas)
Clyde (Georgia)
Crawford (Arkansas)
Davidson (Ohio)
DesJarlais (Tennessee)
Donalds (Florida)
Duncan (South Carolina)
Dunn (Florida)
Fallon (Texas)
Fitzgerald (Wisconsin)
Foxx (North Carolina)
Franklin, C. Scott (Florida)
Fulcher (Idaho)
Gibbs (Ohio)
Gohmert (Texas)
Good (Virginia)
Gooden (Texas)
Gosar (Arizona)
Graves (Missouri)
Green (Tennessee)
Greene (Georgia)
Grothman (Wisconsin)
Guest (Mississippi)
Harris (Maryland)
Harshbarger (Tennessee)
Hern (Oklahoma)
Herrell (New Mexico)
Hice (Georgia)
Higgins (Louisiana)
Jackson (Texas)
Johnson (Louisiana)
Jordan (Ohio)
Joyce (Pennsylvania)
Keller (Pennsylvania)
Kelly (Pennsylvania)
LaHood (Illinois)
Lamborn (Colorado)
LaTurner (Kansas)
Letlow (Louisiana)
Long (Missouri)
Loudermilk (Georgia)
Luetkemeyer (Missouri)
Mace (South Carolina)
Mann (Kansas)
Massie (Kentucky)
Mast (Florida)
McClain (Michigan)
McClintock (California)
McHenry (North Carolina)
Miller (Illinois)
Miller (West Virginia)
Moore (Alabama)
Nehls (Texas)
Norman (South Carolina)
Palazzo (Mississippi)
Palmer (Alabama)
Pence (Indiana)
Perry (Pennsylvania)
Pfluger (Texa)
Posey (Florida)
Reschenthaler (Pennsylvania)
Rice (South Carolina)
Rodgers (Washington)
Rogers (Alabama)
Rose (Tennessee)
Rosendale (Montana)
Rouzer (North Carolina)
Roy (Texas)
Scott, Austin (Georgia)
Sessions (Texas)
Smith (Nebraska)
Smucker (Pennsylvania)
Steube (Florida)
Taylor (Texas)
Timmons (South Carolina)
Van Duyne (Texas)
Walberg (Michigan)
Weber (Texas)
Westerman (AR)

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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

McEnany Lectures Biden: ‘It’s the Role of the President of the United States to Stay Back, to Not Inflame’

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Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday blasted President Joe Biden for speaking out about the Derek Chauvin trial even though her former boss, Donald Trump, often expressed his opinion on similar events.

After the sequestered jury began its deliberations in the Chauvin trial, Biden told reporters that he was praying for the “right verdict.”

McEnany, in her role as Fox News host, criticized the current president.

“I’m glad that he at least waited until the jury was sequestered,” McEnany ranted. “But I think that the country is such a tinderbox right now, especially Minneapolis. There’s so much hurt, so much pain.”

And I think it’s the role of the president of the United States to stay back, to not inflame the tensions,” she added. “I think he should have just reserved comment and said he’s praying for the family as we all are.”

As president, Trump often weighed in on legal matters and controversial events.

After Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with homicide for shootings that left two protesters in Wisconsin dead last August, Trump offered a defense of the suspect.

“He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like,” Trump opined at the time. “I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.”

Watch the video below from Fox News.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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