The Response: Rick Perry’s Strictly Apolitical Prayerfest Freakout
Guest author Michael Tracey covered Rick Perry’s Christian-only Evangelical prayerfest The Response on Saturday. Here’s his report.
So I covered Rick Perry’s Strictly Apolitical Prayerfest Freakout on Saturday for Mother Jones magazine, unembedded. Luckily I emerged unscathed, although the media people at Reliant Stadium in Houston actually said we were not permitted to enter the festival grounds, and should instead stay confined to a row near the back for print journalists — suggesting that danger may lie ahead. But I ventured out anyway, to be among the many Evangelicals who so revered Perry that as he recited scripture, they lifted their hands to the sky in worship. Just as they would for any other preacher.
A number of indicators suggested that The Response won Perry an important political victory if he chooses to run for president, which many assume at this point is virtually assured. Several people I spoke with rejected the notion that any negative-PR arising from his decision to associate with extreme Christianists would mar Perry’s fortunes in a hypothetical campaign. “I think it’ll help him in the primary, and by the time the general election rolls around, this’ll all be ancient history,†said Bob Price of TexasGOPVote, an advocacy group.
Perry’s message resonated with sacred potency. A gaggle of congregants from Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, LA, mulled about Reliant concourse level — forty people had made the five-hour, early morning bus trip to Houston. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,†said Brother Dennis Terry, the presiding pastor. “If there was ever a day and a time when the church needed to get together as one, it’s now.â€
I asked how America might be lifted out of its sinful malaise. “Just last Sunday I preached out of Joel 2,†he said, “calling our people to repentance. Repentance begins in the house of God.â€
As it happens, Joel 2 – a minor apocalyptic book of the Old Testament – appeared to be Gov. Perry’s primary source of scriptural inspiration for convening The Response. In his opening remarks, he read the very same passage cited by Brother Dennis.
“Blow the trumpet in Zion, Declare a holy fast, a sacred assembly,†Joel reads. “Let the priests, who
minister before the LORD, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare your people,
LORD.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’
Needless to say, Brother Dennis was very taken with the governor’s piety. “I believe he’s a man of faith. I believe that he will call this nation to repentance and to faith, and I will support him,†Dennis said. “To me, this here confirmed everything I was already feeling in my heart.â€
Will he encourage his congregants to vote accordingly in the Republican primary, should Perry decide to enter it? Dennis beckoned the flock to encircle me. They promptly did so. “I will encourage them,†Dennis said, the tenor of his voice escalating. “We’re gonna stand with God’s man!â€
“Amen!†the flock called out. “Yessir!â€
Then Brother Dennis looked me straight in the eyes. “I truly believe that Gov. Rick Perry can be God’s man for this hour, for our nation,†he said, concluding our conversation and leading his followers off toward the concession stands.
You’ll notice that the preceding anecdote is exactly the type of thing that Perry should want to happen were he running for president, which he almost certainly is. Enthrall the preachers, send them home to organize, but do it under the auspice of attaining salvation — not politics. Brilliant!
The lines at concession stands, by the way, were perpetually clogged as people waited for hotdogs, nachos, and smoothies. Perry, invoking Joel, had called for an optional day of fasting – which gave this sight a tinge of irony. I asked whether beer was on sale. It wasn’t.
At some point I ran into Bryan Fischer, the flagrantly anti-gay radiohost and media personality from the American Family Association, which entirely underwrote the event. He defended his past assertion that Hitler was indeed gay, and that the Defense of Marriage Act is actually a boon to states’ rights. He also reiterated support for a federal anti-gay marriage amendment. No surprises there, but what I found most important was his belief that Rick Perry, soon to be the Republican presidential front-runner for president, is set to move the country in a direction where gay rights will no longer be tolerated, at least in terms of public policy. I’ll actually be on his show tomorrow! Weird, huh?
I moved on from Fischer, feeling morally conflicted about my conclusion that he seemed like a moderately charming person. Players from the Houston Texans, the typical occupants of Reliant Stadium, passed me in the hallways. No matter how many times I see football players up close, I always gawk at their massive size. Most had no idea about what was happening in the stadium, though one told me this year’s defense was looking “awesome.†Later, a bottled-water vendor said she’d been plucked by management from her normal assignment at training camp to work The Response. “I’d rather be at training camp,†she told me, sighing.
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Michael Tracey is a freelance journalist based in New York. He has also written for Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, The Nation, The Awl, and other publications. You can follow him on Twitter.
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President Donald Trump is promising mass pardons to White House staff, and has done so repeatedly, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting, to laughs, the Journal reported, citing people familiar.
“That radius,” the Journal added, “appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.”
Trump at one point said he would hold a news conference to announce the mass pardons.
“The president has repeatedly raised the specter of pardons with White House aides and other administration officials, particularly when staff have suggested they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions, people familiar with the comments said,” the Journal reported.
The Journal did not state if the pardons would be blanket pardons, but reported that those familiar with his remarks “said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.”
READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness
The report also noted that Trump has often seriously pursued actions he initially had joked about.
“It seems like he previewed many times his intent to use the pardon power to bail out those who carry out his agenda faithfully,” Liz Oyer, a former Trump Justice Department pardon attorney told the Journal. She also “said the offers could spur Cabinet officials and administration officials to behave more aggressively.”
While Trump did not pardon White House or other officials in conjunction with the events of January 6, 2021, on his first day back in office he did issue sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 of those who were at the Capitol that day and later arrested.
READ MORE: ‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post
Image via Reuters
The White House is fighting back after a prominent House Democrat demanded that the Physician to the President test Donald Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s recent remarks.
“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote to the President’s Physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella, D.O., in a letter published by Punchbowl News.
“I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”
Congressman Raskin noted that experts “have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
“And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening. His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
Raskin noted that during the Biden presidency, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called President Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” and subpoenaed the White House Physician.
He also noted that during that time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit, “isn’t fit for office.”
Raskin offered some examples, including Trump’s recent message to Iran, which the Congressman described as combining “vulgarity and profanity, unprecedented threats of mass civilian destruction, and a sarcastic invocation of Islam on Easter morning—a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”
Trump had written: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The New York Times had described Trump’s remarks as a “blistering threat” that “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”
Raskin is insisting that Dr. Barbabella conduct “a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results.”
Also, it asks him to provide “a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential,” and make himself available for a briefing under oath.
The White House wasted no time in responding, telling Courthouse News’ Benjamin S. Weiss: “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” the White House added.
Image via Reuters
Ahead of diplomatic talks starting Saturday, President Donald Trump once again threatened Iran with violence as critics charge his tenuous cease-fire has fallen apart.
“As Vice President JD Vance was heading to Pakistan on Friday for peace talks with Iran, a senior Iranian official laid out new conditions for the negotiations, adding even more uncertainty about the durability of the cease-fire and whether the two sides could reach a long-term deal,” The New York Times reports, noting that President Trump “warned Tehran not to overplay its hand.”
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” the President wrote on Truth Social.
“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he declared.
His remarks seemed to echo his highly-criticized comments earlier this week:
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
On April 1, Trump wrote, “we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Some ridiculed the president.
“Completely controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging ships a $2 million toll to pass through seem to be a couple of pretty good cards,” noted attorney Adam Cohen.
Reason’s Matthew Petti added, “You might say that Iran’s only cards are…a strait flush.”
Image via Reuters
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