Maggie Haberman Says Trump Not ‘Especially Well-Versed’ In Christianity Ahead Of Pope Funeral
CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman told Anderson Cooper that President Donald Trump is not “especially well versed” in Christianity ahead of his attendance at the funeral of Pope Francis.
The 88-year-old Pope passed away Monday, and his funeral was held on Saturday at 10 AM Vatican time, six hours ahead of Eastern time.
On an episode of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 this week, Cooper asked Haberman “How does the president see his relationship with American Catholics?”
In her response, Haberman noted that Trump — who once referred to Second Corinthians as “Two Corinthians” — is not exactly a biblical scholar:
COOPER: And President Zelenskyy from Ukraine is coming here with his wife as well. I know he — this weekend, are there plans for the two to get together?
HABERMAN: I haven’t heard of any plans so far, Anderson. And certainly, President Trump attacked President Zelenskyy again today over the peace talks around this effort to try to force a piece between Russia and Ukraine. He has not been as vocally critical of Russia as we know. That’s not usually a place to come at an engagement from at a funeral. But I do think that it could force a conversation. And I think that the U.S. believes that they will get Zelenskyy to that place one way or another.
I also think Anderson, there’s going to be a lot of world leaders who are going to want pull asides with President Trump over the weekend, just given everything that is happening in terms of Trump’s trade war and his efforts with various countries.
COOPER: Is that something you think that will happen actual — pull asides? I mean, I assume he will be here for — will he just be here for the funeral? Will he be staying here? Do you know?
HABERMAN: I believe it is just going to be for the funeral, but we’ll see. I mean, they haven’t announced what the full plan is going to be. They haven’t announced who exactly is going with him. I don’t believe that he is going to be able to take a very large delegation, but we’ll see.
COOPER: How does the president see his relationship with American Catholics?
HABERMAN: The president believes that he has been good to American Catholics the way that he believes that he has to a number of groups. He also has been very critical of Democrats in relation to Catholics. His running mate and now Vice President J.D. Vance has talked about this a lot. Now, but Trump does not tend to talk about religion in a traditional way that we have heard politicians and certainly Republican politicians do so.
Trump talks about religion and he talks about Christianity broadly, primarily through abortion and, and through the pro-life movement, and we have seen this over and over again. But he does not, this is not something that you will hear him be especially well versed in. But if you ask him, he will say he’s been very good to Catholics.
Watch above via Anderson Cooper 360.