Catholic League president condemns Biden’s ‘religious baiting’ to attack Trump

Is President Biden bigoted?

The president of the Catholic League says he is.

Bill Donohue, who has led the Catholic organization since 1993, said Mr. Biden “showed his bigoted side” last week after he criticized pro-life evangelicals for supporting former President Donald Trump in past elections.

“Biden intentionally red-flagged evangelicals, knowing it would appeal to his bigoted base (survey data also show that Democrats do not think highly of Catholics, either),” Mr. Donohue said in a blog post. “This was a classic example of religious baiting, and it should be condemned by everyone.

“As the election year progresses, look for Biden to continue with this demagogic strategy,” he said. “The ’devout Catholic’ has no problem manipulating religion to serve his militantly secular agenda.”

The Washington Times reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.

Hoping the post-Roe debate over abortion rights can help salvage his reelection bid, Mr. Biden, who touts his Catholic faith, is running hard on a pro-choice message that does not sit well with Catholic and evangelical voters.

Polls show abortion is one of the few areas where voters trust Mr. Biden more than Mr. Trump, who see the Republican as stronger on, among other things, the economy and immigration.

The debate is raging in states across the country including in Arizona, where the state Supreme Court recently upheld an 1864 near-total ban on abortion, enraging Democrats and pro-choice activists who are fighting to enshrine abortion rights through a ballot referendum this fall.

Speaking this week in Tampa, Mr. Biden said Mr. Trump struck a “political deal [with] the evangelical base of the Republican Party to look past his moral and character flaws for his commitment to appoint justices of the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe.”

Mr. Biden said it is a precursor for what will happen if Mr. Trump wins back the White House, warning he will back a “ban nationwide abortion” on behalf of “MAGA extremists.”

Mr. Donohue took issue with Mr. Biden’s comments, saying half of the money Democrats raise comes from Jewish people, but “no one is going to say that Biden made a ’political deal’ with ’the Jewish base of the Democratic Party to look past his cognitive flaws.’”

“Biden refuses to condemn the anti-Jewish rhetoric stemming from Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan,” he said. “Yet no one is going to say that he made a ’political deal’ with ’the Muslim base of the Democratic Party to look past his cognitive flaws.’”

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Catholic League President Bill Donohue.