The media’s tendency to use the Pope to criticize Republican candidates and officials was on display Wednesday afternoon as MSNBC’s Live with Thomas Roberts and Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect took shots at the 2016 GOP presidential field and, specifically, Catholics Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum (in the case of the latter show) for opposing Pope Francis’s upcoming encyclical on global warming.
On MSNBC, host Thomas Roberts was joined by NBC News senior political analyst Mark Murray, who opined that the issue of climate change “really has Republicans kind of cornered a bit and particularly when the Pope ends up wading in.”
Without pointing out the opposing viewpoints that many Democrats hold compared to the Pope on issues like gay marriage and abortion, Murray observed that “whenever you inject the Pope into [an issue], you have to temper your language a bit” in contrast to an answer Bush gave regarding the topic that Murray ruled as sounding “more condemnatory.”
Going forward for the GOP, Murray predicted that “this is a question that Republicans are going to end up getting” and one that “we're going to see at every single Republican debate.”
Over on Bloomberg, co-host Mark Halperin mocked Christianity in stating that the GOP has “to decide if they should play the climate denier card and rebuke the Pope, which could hurt them with some in the religious community and possibly get them barred from heaven.”
Co-host John Heilemann burst out into laughter in response to Halperin’s line and added that he thought “it’s insane” for them “to take on Pope Francis not just because they might not get into heaven, if there is such a thing, but because he is super popular and also because he’s right.”
Halperin agreed and reiterated that “[t]hat’s why the Pope taking this position is dangerous,” but did mention how Democrats have strayed from “the Pope on issues like abortion.”
His co-host in Heilemann declined to go down that route when he shot back that “[t]hose are moral issues, not scientific [ones]” like climate change. Halperin acquiesced and continued to argue that this situation is “very dangerous for Republicans” like Bush and Santorum for going against the Pope and the “near consensus in the scientific community.”
The final comments on this topic went to Heilemann, who concluded that “we know where some of these people are” like Santorum who “are going to be climate deniers” whereas “this will be a real challenge” for Bush because, in his view, the former Florida governor is “trying to run a general election campaign” while in the primary.
Hours earlier, CNN correspondent Delia Gallagher hyped on CNN's Wolf and Newsroom that the encyclical is "so anticipated."
The relevant portions of the transcript from Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect on June 17 can be found below.
Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect
June 17, 2015
5:02 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Risk of Going after the Pope?]
MARK HALPERIN: Alright, the pope says people are causing climate change. Now, Republicans have to decide if they should play the climate denier card and rebuke the Pope, which could hurt them with some in the religious community and possibly get them barred from heaven. How to thread that needle? [HEILEMANN LAUGHING]
(....)
HALPERIN: So, John, there are at least five Catholics likely to end up in this Republican field, but for all of the Republican candidates, how big a risk is it for them to basically say to the Pope, whose popular, stay out of politics?
HEILEMANN: I think it's insane – it’s insane to take on Pope Francis, not just because they might not get into heaven, if there is such a thing, but because he is super popular and also because he’s right....[I]t’s going to be very hard, I think, for someone to become president of the United States in 2016 who is a climate denier...
HALPERIN: That’s why the Pope taking this position is dangerous. You know, who can look at Democrats, who have challenged whoever the pope on issues like abortion.
HEILEMANN: Those are moral issues, not scientific.
HALPERIN: Exactly and they have suffered, but in this case, the Pope putting his moral authority behind the science, very dangerous for Republicans. I think Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum, by saying, well we listen to scientists and not to the Pope, kinda begs the question: Which scientists they are listening to given the nature of the consensus – near consensus in the scientific community.
HEILEMANN: Look, we know where some of these people are – Rick Santorum, some of these folks on the Republican side are going to be climate deniers. They’re going to try and fuzz it up. I mean, for Jeb Bush, this will be a real challenge because someone like Jon Huntsman, who took the position that was in line with science, paid a huge price for. Jeb Bush is trying to run a general election campaign, as we noted.
