Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is among the Christian leaders who are responding to former President Barack Obama and his remarks about evangelical Hispanics who voted for Donald Trump.
“Ah yes, those Hispanic evangelicals. So backwards. Clinging to their guns and religion, you might say. Barack Obama still the most condescending corporate liberal in America,” Hawley wrote on Twitter.
Obama appeared on New York City’s “The Breakfast Club” radio show this week promoting his latest book. During the interview, he talked about the presidential election and brought up President Trump upsetting Democrat Joe Biden in states such as Florida and Texas because of the votes of evangelical Hispanics.
“People were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump, but there’s a lot of evangelical Hispanics,” he said. “The fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans, or puts undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion.”
The “cages” Obama referred to were built during his own administration as chain-link enclosures to temporarily house illegal immigrants at border facilities, according to numerous sources.
Obama’s comments also received a harsh response from the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. The organization represents 42,000-plus U.S. churches and many additional churches spread throughout Spanish-speaking countries.
“I’ll tell you what I’m not thankful for this Thanksgiving: the ever-escalating close-mindedness of the Democrat Party. President Obama, whom I admire, is apparently angry because Hispanic Americans have minds of their own. As I have said at every opportunity, we are not – and will not be – beholden to the elephant or the donkey,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “A much more useful exercise for President Obama would have been to lead the Democrat Party to some humble self-reflection rather than further down the fundamentalist path of the leftist politics of exclusion. Bigotry is still bigotry even if it comes from President Obama.
“The question is whether the party of Biden is any different or whether demands for conformity are being cleverly disguised under the guise of national unity.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice