Liberal Esquire political columnist Charles Pierce, formerly with the Boston Globe, joined MSNBC’s All In on Thursday during live coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to New York City and used the occasion of the Pope’s speech hours earlier before Congress to lash out at Ted Cruz and conservatives for not endorsing climate change or other liberal social issues as does the Pontiff.
After remarking how he noticed that “[t]here wasn’t a single accidental word” in the Pope’s speech and was “less of a stem winder” than expected, Pierce began his brief tirade by praising Francis for having “this vast sense he gives off of not being judgmental after frankly two papacies of very judgmental men” in Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Pierce gushed that this trait has been “the one thing that draws people to him and have got me – besides the fact that his message.” Unprovoked, it was at that moment Pierce dragged conservatives and Republican presidential Ted Cruz into the conversation to serve as a punching bag for not holding identical social views that he or Pope Francis possess:
He has a different idea of social issues than, say, Ted Cruz does. His social issues involve the basic human right of having a livable planet. I mean, he's expanded – I thought one tremendous moment in the speech was when he made the now, you know, sort of mandatory line about respecting life, and he immediately pivots to the death penalty and you saw the Republicans stand up when he got to the thing about life and as soon as – when he pivoted to the death penalty, they all sat back down again.
Before turning the attention exclusively back to the Pope, Pierce quipped to host Chris Hayes in one final shot at conservatives that Francis is “a step ahead of folks on a lot of things.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on September 24 can be found below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
September 24, 2015
8:02 p.m. EasternCHRIS HAYES: I have with me here, Esquire political columnist Charlie Pierce, who has been covering the day's events, has been following the Pope around and Charlie, I thought the Pope's decision to begin just with that small note of ecumenical grace –
ESQUIRE POLITICAL COLUMNIST CHARLIE PIERCE: Yeah.
HAYES: – just embodies what I think people find so welcoming about him.
PIERCE: This, as I said when I was putting together my thoughts on the speech today, I listened to that speech in the Congress. There wasn't a single accidental word in it. Every word was very, very intelligently and shrewdly chosen and I thought, you know, this is – this is a guy of great strategic ambiguity. One might almost say Jesuitical, but I was afraid my uncle might come back from the dead and hit me over the head, but I thought, you know, it was less of a stem winder, I think, than people thought it was going to be. There were a lot of people who were geared up for a little bit of fire and brimstone, but he came on, it was more of a homily and like he was just trying to be a grateful guest.
HAYES: Yes and in this sort of spirit of gracious invitation which I think has been a spirit that he's embodied from the very beginning of his papacy, reflected in what he said today before Congress, reflected in another I thought grace note moment afterwards when he went out to the balcony and he basically said to the faithful I ask you to pray for me and for those who are non-believers, just wish me well, wish me luck. I thought that, again, it had just such a kind of wonderful open attitude and that he really embodies.
PIERECE: Well, I mean, this vast sense he gives off of not being judgmental after frankly two papacies of very judgmental men, I think, is the one thing that draws people to him and have got me – besides the fact that his message – let's put it this way. He has a different idea of social issues than, say, Ted Cruz does. His social issues involve the basic human right of having a livable planet. I mean, he's expanded – I thought one tremendous moment in the speech was when he made the now, you know, sort of mandatory line about respecting life, and he immediately pivots to the death penalty and you saw the Republicans stand up when he got to the thing about life and as soon as – when he pivoted to the death penalty, they all sat back down again. I mean, he's a step ahead of folks on a lot of things.
