On Wednesday's MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, liberal SiriusXM talk radio host and frequent MSNBC guest Mark Thompson declared that baby Jesus, as an immigrant, would have been separated from his parents and might have died in detention if he had lived under President Donald Trump's rule.
During the segment in which the government shutdown and incoming Republican Senator Mitt Romney's recent attacks on President Trump were discussed, there was a stacked panel with two blatant liberal guests, one journalist as a guest, and a former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner, who, like typical MSNBC Republicans, offered no right-leaning pushback against the segment's liberal tilt.
After fill-in host Chris Jansing wondered what role newly elected Democrats would play in pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a government funding plan, Thompson complained:
Instead of 12 days of Christmas, we've had, including today, 12 days of a government shutdown. He (President Trump) is desperate because he fears the Mueller investigation. This serves as a distraction and gins up a base that, frankly, Chris, doesn't like the federal government anyway. They could care less -- his base could care less if the government is open.
After complaining about federal workers not receiving paychecks, he then hinted that conservative Christians are being hypocritical in supporting Trump. Here's Thompson: "And as far as the wall is concerned, you know, we just celebrated the birth of Jesus who was part of an immigrant family seeking political asylum in another country from King Herod's violence."
Jansing then injected: "We don't hear a lot from evangelicals on this."
The liberal talk radio host added:
But we should, because if they were true to themselves -- if Jesus were today or Trump was back then, He would have been separated from his parents. Joseph and Mary would have been put in a separate detention center -- He would have been put in a separate detention center, and He might likely have died in custody like another child did over the holidays.
Even though the Barack Obama administration rejected about 80 percent of asylum seekers from Central American countries, none of the other panel members offered any pushback to Thompson's hyperbole.
It was also not clarified that migrant families who are asylum seekers are rarely separated if they follow the proper legal process for applying at ports of entry.
Jansing pivoted from this "historical" lecture by going to Wehner and inviting him to discuss his recent expression of support for Senator Romney criticizing President Trump.
