CBN’s David Brody Says Trump’s Adultery, Other Moral Failings Will Invalidate Evangelical Attacks on Buttigieg’s Sexuality
Christian Broadcasting Network chief political analyst David Brody said that President Donald Trump’s adultery, toxic rhetoric, and other moral failings have rendered powerless any potential evangelical attacks on Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s sexuality.
Speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Brody acknowledged that evangelical voters’ about face on the need for presidential candidates setting an example of strict Biblical morality — as they define it — could hamstring any attempts to attack Buttigieg for being gay, were he to become the Democratic nominee.
“David, you said Mayor Buttigieg is probably the ‘most electable Democrat.’ I know you’re skeptical of Bernie Sanders. Why do you see Buttigieg as, as that?” Cooper asked.
“Well, there are quite a few reasons, Anderson. First of all, let’s start with this. I don’t want to bury the lede, but he’s not a socialist,” Brody noted, contradicting one, ready-made right-wing talking point.
That doesn’t mean they won’t stop trying, however, Cooper noted, pointing to the recent outcry over Rush Limbaugh’s insidious “gay guy” mockery of Buttigieg. “Is that indicative of a larger strategy among president’s supporters?
“Well, I don’t know about a strategy. I will just say that it could be a reality. And I put that in quotes. A reality that the Buttigieg campaign could face going forward in a general election,” Brody acknowledged.
Cooper then noted the obvious hypocrisy of evangelical voters who once “claimed the moral high ground” have also decided to strongly support Trump, an admitted adulterer who has bragged about sexual harassing women — and been accused by more than a dozen women of doing exactly that — and who continually insults and mocks others and has publicly dismissed the faith and prayers of Democratic politicians. Brody conceded that the CNN host made a good point.
“I think at this point, evangelical leaders and writ large, evangelicals, really can’t say anything in terms of ‘I’m not going to vote for Buttigieg, for example, or support Buttigieg because he’s gay.’ They just can’t do that. That is not something they’ll be able to do,” Brody claimed. “What they can say is whether it be he’s pro-choice and some of the other public policy positions, they can go there and not vote for him. But on the — on the moral issue, I think you’re right. I think that’s going to be an issue for them, for sure.”
“I will just simply say that ultimately, evangelicals aren’t going to be able to necessarily point to Pete Buttigieg and say, look, he’s gay don’t vote for him. They can’t say that,” Brody reiterated.
When Cooper pressed, nothing that Limbaugh’s example contradicts that claim, Brody clarified that he thought that that anti-gay strategy won’t be effective.
“For sure. No, I — I understand that. But, you know, ultimately, that’s just not going to be a winning hand,” Brody explained, before pointing to Buttigieg’s very public discussions of his faith as a potential asset that could peel off some evangelical voters dissatisfied with Trump. “I will say this: Conservative, white evangelicals, 81%, as you know, went to Donald Trump in 2016. But Barack Obama won 26% of those white, conservative evangelicals in 2008. Hillary Clinton did not. Why? She didn’t engage at all with the community. Buttigieg has an opportunity to do that and to win, potentially, younger evangelicals and also some of those Never-Trumper evangelicals. You win elections at the margins, as you know. Florida, North Carolina could make a difference.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
