On Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, they announced a two-part "Eye On America" investigation into white evangelical Christians fervently backing Donald Trump, like religion and politics shouldn’t mix. Don’t expect a probe into black evangelical Christians and their fervent backing of Democrats. That kind of mix doesn’t bother CBS. For that matter, CBS is less concerned about Islamists mixing church and state in American politics.
Fill-in anchor Maurice Dubois pointed out 84 percent of white evangelicals backed Trump. Major Garrett reported from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and the “Courage Tour,” which took place from July 28 to 31.
MAJOR GARRETT: In Trump, evangelicals don't see an abrasive, thrice-married billionaire. They do see an anti-establishment leader strong on abortion, gender issues and Israel.
JACKIE BROKAW (Attendee): I want people to vote because he stands for something.
GARRETT: Brother and sister attendees Jackie Brokaw and David Jansen.
DAVID JANSEN (Attendee): The 2020 is a fraud and everybody knows it.
Then Garrett turned to the predictable leftist expert – Matthew Taylor, author of the forthcoming book The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy. Taylor doesn’t say on air that these people are a danger to democracy. It’s a little bit subtler:
MAJOR GARRETT: The Courage Tour targets key counties in battleground states, including places where Trump lost narrowly in 2020. In addition to voter mobilization, organizers want charismatic Christians as poll watchers and workers.
MATTHEW TAYLOR (Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies): What you're seeing here today is the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever.
GARRETT: Matthew Taylor has written extensively about this new form of religious activism that fuses political outcomes with divine intervention. [To Taylor] What is the political import possibly in the 2024 election of events like this?
TAYLOR: Well, if Trump wins, then that becomes a part of the impetus, that Donald Trump can say, I don't just have a Democratic mandate, I have a divine mandate to change the country in accordance with the biblical values that these folks claim to have.
DONALD TRUMP: You won`t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.
GARRETT: Trump's election denialism electrified and galvanized charismatic online for weeks leading up to the January 6 Capitol riot.
LANCE WALLNAU: January 6 was not an insurrection. It was an election-fraud intervention.
TAYLOR: Many of the people who were leaders in this movement also showed up on January 6th -- because they really believed that the election was being stolen.
Wait, it's a January 6 piece that's not reported by Scott MacFarlane? This is where CBS Evening News should just be called Right Wing Watch, because they're just collecting the intel collected by left-wing activists and sharing it as "news." Major Garrett looks like a major asset to the Left.
