American politics has long been pervaded by the kind of Bible Belt morality personified by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Johnson, a lawyer and congressman hailing from western Louisiana, is a deeply evangelical Christian. Last February, he brought his team on a retreat to Miami that took on a surprisingly religious tone. According to Politico, two people who were in the room said that Johnson “attempted to rally the group by discussing moral decline in America — focusing on declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity.” According to them, Johnson “contended that when one doesn’t have God in their life, the government or ‘state’ will become their guide, referring back to Bible verses.”
Christian nationalism is a political rather than a religious concept. Most Republicans favor declaring the United States a “Christian nation,” with the implication that it is unfriendly to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and atheists.
So it was strange that Johnson has allied himself with the manifestly immoral Donald Trump. Wearing the uniform of the day, a blue suit festooned with a red tie, Johnson — who has supported outlawing pornography, penned op-eds opposing marriage equality and advocated against everything from abortion to LGBTQ rights — traveled to a dingy courthouse in downtown New York City to voice his support for Donald Trump on trial for committing 34 felonies related to hush money payments to a porn actress.
Flanked by other MAGA Republican leaders, Johnson chose to appear in the courtroom the day porn actress Stormy Daniels gave testimony about her sordid tryst with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room.
“President Trump has done nothing wrong,” Johnson said, adding that Congress would in some unspecified way step in to save him. He did not specify whether he meant “wrong” in a biblical or a political sense. Even after the guilty verdict, Johnson stood by his man. Ignoring that the jury of his peers was selected with the participation of Trump’s lawyers, Johnson said, “they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges,” preaching that, “today is a shameful day in American history.”
Johnson doesn’t share Trump’s interest in porn stars. He and his son have purchased the Covenant Eyes porn surveillance app, which scans all your online activity and “sends a report to your accountability partner,” Johnson told some Louisiana Baptists a couple of years ago. “My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. … I’m proud to tell you, my son has a clean slate.”
Hypocrisy should come as no surprise in a politician, and perhaps it is not misplaced, but this one rivals Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn denying he was gay even as he was dying of AIDS.
Trump stands convicted of 34 felonies and may be sentenced to prison next month. Today he meets virtually with a probation officer who will prepare a pre-sentencing report for Judge Juan Merchan. No other president or presidential candidate in our 235-year history has been so tarnished. And his conviction is a crime involving moral turpitude. So where is the moral outrage from Republicans, from evangelicals, from those who live by the Bible?
The silence is deafening.
And Johnson will not stop with statements of support. The other day he announced a “three-pronged approach” to go after the justice system. The plan includes using the appropriations process, legislation brought to the floor and Congress’s oversight authority to take on the Justice Department — which had nothing to do with the Manhattan case.
Other MAGAs were quick to pile on. The fiery Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio announced he would “demand” that New York County District Attorney Bragg and Matthew Colangelo, another prosecutor on the hush money case, appear for testimony about “the unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump.
The felony conviction is not Trump’s only obloquy. Last year, a New York jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding the advice columnist E. Jean Carroll $5 million. A later trial for defaming Carroll resulted in an additional award of more than $83 million. And Trump awaits three more trials — in Washington, Florida and Georgia — in which he faces serious criminal charges arising out of the events of Jan 6. and his mishandling of classified documents
Promising Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina abandoned his candidacy for the presidency in January 2008 when it came out in the National Enquirer that he had an extramarital affair with a campaign worker and had sired a child out of wedlock. The revelation led to his indictment for using $1 million in campaign funds to cover up the affair. The trial ended in a hung jury, but it was the end of his political career.
The famous aphorism goes, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” But apparently not for Donald Trump?
So, while Trump acts like a mob boss, comparing himself to Al Capone, trashing the justice system, with the support of the Speaker of the House and his MAGA toadies, his adversary, President Joe Biden, spoke at Pointe du Hac, Normandy, a stone’s throw from the mass graves of 9,388 Americans who died 80 years ago on D-Day to save democracy from the dictators.
Ronald Reagan spoke at Pointe du Hac 40 years ago in deathless prose:
“Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history,” Reagan said. “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.”
And these moral MAGAs, these foes of pornography, marriage equality, reproductive freedom and the justice system, speak in support of Donald Trump, a convicted felon who referred to our fallen dead as “suckers” and “losers.” How dare they?
James D. Zirin, author and legal analyst, is a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District. He is also the host of the public television talk show and podcast Conversations with Jim Zirin.