President Donald Trump has reacted to an editorial in a leading evangelical magazine article, Christianity Today saying he has “done more for the Evangelical community and it’s not even close.”
Christianity Today, founded by the late Billy Graham, published an editorial on Thursday calling for Trump’s removal from office.
Trump pushed back on Twitter: “A far left magazine, or very ‘progressive’, as some would call it, which has been doing poorly and hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years, Christianity Today, knows nothing about reading a perfect transcript of a routine phone call and would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President. No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close. You’ll not get anything from those Dems on stage. I won’t be reading ET again!”
The leading evangelical magazine in the US called for Trump to get the boot from office, in an editorial published Thursday.
Citing precedent that Christianity Today set when it supported the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton two decades ago, editor Mark Galli wrote that Trump had lost the moral authority to lead the country.
“We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath,” Galli wrote in the editorial, offering the judgement on the heels of the House’s vote Wednesday night to impeach the chief executive.
White evangelicals were the bedrock of Trump’s victory in 2016, turning out in force for the Republican.
Trump garnered about 80 per cent of the white evangelical vote, according to exit polls.
“To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve,” the editorial urged. “Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency.”
Meanwhile, dempcrati represenative, Tulsi Gabbard, who is also vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, defended voting “present” on Wednesday’s impeachment articles.
“So my stance [on Wednesday], my vote, was opting out of this zero-sum game mindset and back into one of negotiation and compromise,” she said. “We’re stuck right now on this terrible scenario where everyone is trying to exact maximum hurt from their opponent for a quote, unquote win. My present vote was not passive; it was an active protest against the terrible fallout of this zero-sum mindset that the two opposing political parties have trapped America in. There’s no winning here. Everyone is losing.”
US senators gift-wrap an impeachment impasse ahead of holiday break
US senators who control the fate of Trump left Washington, DC, for a holiday break on Friday with no agreement over how they will handle the Senate trial to consider his impeachment charges in January.
Impeachment of Trump voted top 2019 news story in AP poll
The drive by the Democratic-led House of Representatives to impeach Trump was the top news story of 2019, according to The Associated Press’ annual poll.
Trump also figured in the second and third biggest stories of the year: the fallout over his immigration policies and the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether his election campaign coordinated with Russia.
But it was impeachment that was by far the top choice in the AP poll.
Most corrupt
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s impeachment, all seven Democrat presidential candidates at the last 2019 presidential debate said the president must be defeated at the 2020 ballot box.
“We need to restore the integrity of the presidency,” said frontrunner Biden, who accused Trump of “dumbing down” the office “beyond what I even thought he would do”.
US debate
Senator Bernie Sanders, who is second in the standings, blasted Trump as “running the most corrupt administration in the modern history of this country”.
Fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren added that the president ignores the poor, to do “everything he can for the wealthy and the well-connected”.
US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to consider over the upcoming holiday recess allowing witnesses to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial, Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman said.
Following a private meeting of the Democratic and Republican leaders, Goodman said Schumer “made clear to Senator McConnell that the witnesses and documents are necessary to ensure a fair trial in the Senate.”
Impeachment to be front and centre at Democratic debate
Seven Democratic candidates are set to face off Thursday night in the last debate of the year.
The debate comes just a day after Trump was impeached, and the topic is expected to be front and centre.
Most Democratic contenders have previously said they supported impeachment, labelling Trump “the most corrupt president in history”.
Impeachment, organised labour: What to expect at Democrat debate
The House impeachment votes set up a likely January trial in the Republican-led Senate, where the three senators on Thursday’s debate stage will act as jurors.
“For these senators who are running, it’s significant because they’re going to become players of the story now, they’re no longer watching it,” said Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served under former President Barack Obama.
“I’m sure we will have some commentary, [not just] about Donald Trump and why he was impeached, but also about senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and about process and about the Constitution and about what they’re going to do because they’re all going to make statements at a certain point from the Senate floor,” he added.
Trump to meet party-switching Dem after impeachment ‘no’
Expected party-switcher Representative Jeff Van Drew was scheduled to meet Trump at the White House on Thursday, one day after the New Jersey congressman broke with Democrats to vote against the president’s impeachment.
A White House official confirmed that Trump would meet with Van Drew, who told his staff over the weekend that he would become a Republican. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal discussions.
Senate advances $1.4-trillion spending deal in drive to adjourn
The Senate voted to advance a $1.4-trillion government spending package in a last, bipartisan burst of legislating before bolting for the holidays from a Capitol that is toxic with impeachment.
Trump impeachment: Republicans, Democrats spar over next steps
The votes set up a likely trial in the Senate, but when a trial would take place and what it would look like remains a major point of contention between the parties.
Pelosi: Frankly, I don’t care what the Republicans say
Speaking to reporters on the day after Trump’s impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected criticism from Republicans, who have accused Democrats of being afraid to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
“Frankly, I don’t care what the Republicans say,” Pelosi said.
She said she was waiting to see “the process that is set forth in the Senate” before naming House managers who would act as prosecutors in the a trial.
She refused to say when she plans to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
Aljazeera
