Chris Cuomo thinks Trump is only trying to 'con Christians'
Chris Cuomo isn’t buying President Trump’s recent photo ops at Christian landmarks in Washington D.C. lately. On Monday, as Trump was preparing to make a statement in the Rose Garden in which he spoke of using the military to “dominate” protesters across the country, authorities violently beat back peaceful protesters, including the use of tear gas, so Trump could get his picture taken with a Bible in front of nearby St. John’s Church. Trump was widely condemned for the move, including from the bishop of the D.C. Episcopal Diocese, Mariann Budde, who accused Trump of using the Bible and the Church itself as props. Cuomo referred to it as a “fraudulent photo op.”
Video Transcript
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CHRIS CUOMO: We all watched it on live TV, who was chased away and for what. That your fellow citizens, they weren't beaten back for a fraudulent photo op. There he is.
KYLIE MAR: On Wednesday night, Chris Cuomo called out President Trump for recent photo ops in front of Christian landmarks. On Monday, authorities violently beat back peaceful protesters so Trump could get his picture taken with a Bible in front of nearby St. John's Church, a move that outraged the bishop of the DC Episcopal Diocese, Mariann Budde, who called into Anderson Cooper later that night.
MARIANN BUDDE: The president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for.
KYLIE MAR: On Tuesday, Trump and Melania posed for pictures in front of the St. John Paul II shrine. Washington's Roman Catholic archbishop Wilton Gregory responded much like Bishop Budde, saying he finds it "baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles."
And Cuomo claims he knows why Trump is doing this now.
CHRIS CUOMO: He goes to church not to show his faith but to merely con Christians. But even those poll numbers are dropping. Maybe they're finally seeing that a man who wants people of faith to stand against those seeking justice is a man who is anathema to Christ's message. That this man may hold the good book in his hand but he does not hold its message in his heart.
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