(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for its animosity towards Catholics.
The former president made the comments about his presumed opponent during a speech on Friday at a Turning Point USA event.
“As everyone here understands, the radical left ideology Kamala supports is really militantly hostile toward Americans of faith,” Trump said Friday. “And you saw that during the pandemic where people couldn’t get together even when they wanted to get together with big spaces outside. They were ravaged.”
The former president and 2024 Republican nominee made the comments at Turning Point’s Believers’ Summit.
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“As a senator, she viciously attacked highly-qualified judicial nominees simply because they were members of the Knights of Columbus, suggesting that their Catholic faith disqualified them from serving on the federal bench,” Trump said, referencing his appointee Brian Buescher.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, Harris, along with Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, questioned Buescher over his membership in the Knights of Columbus.
She called the group’s opposition to homosexual “marriage” an “extreme” position and questioned Buescher for being part of the abortion-opposing Catholic group, as LifeSiteNews has previously reported.
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Trump then asked how a Catholic could vote for Democrats.
“I don’t know how a Catholic can vote for the Democrats because they’re after the Catholics, almost as much as they’re after me,” Trump said. “I would say I top you, I’m proud to admit, but they’re really after the Catholics.”
— Matt Lamb (@MattLamb22) July 29, 2024
The Biden-Harris administration has a record of persecuting Catholics and other Christians. Under the administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has aggressively and selectively enforced the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), including targeting peaceful pro-life Catholic fathers like Mark Houck, as LifeSiteNews reported.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, Latin Mass-attending Catholics have also been labeled as “extremists” and spied on by the FBI, and citizens who oppose racial identity politics and sexual ideology in the classroom have been compared to domestic terrorists by the DOJ.
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Trump also criticized Harris’ support for the LGBT agenda, including letting “men into womens’ and girls’ locker rooms.”
Trump also said he will cut federal funding to schools that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives of our children.”
A clip of those comments was shared by Elon Musk. “Save our kids,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter), quoting the crowd’s chant.
Save our kids!
pic.twitter.com/1obaIHBv0A— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 27, 2024
“And I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate, not a penny,” the president said.
“And I will keep men out of women’s sports.”
Harris’ anti-Catholic record raises alarm
Harris’ record on religious freedom and life has drawn concern and stark criticism from pro-life and Catholic leaders. LifeSiteNews recently spoke to several leaders who warned about a potential Harris presidency.
“Unless she does a complete 180 on her stance, which means losing the allegiance of her radical abortion base, true Catholics who uphold the sanctity of all human life have a vested interest in voting against her if she becomes the Democrat nominee,” Students for Life of America National Field Director Reagan Barklage told LifeSiteNews last week.
“Harris is on record with a willingness to persecute pro-lifers and anyone who opposes LGBT ideologies,” the Lepanto Institute’s Michael Hichborn warned. “Taking her agenda to its logical conclusion, Harris’ America would not just eliminate religious freedom, but all freedom, making citizens into automatons to do the bidding of the state.”
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, has also criticized Harris’ record, referencing her opposition to Buescher, the federal judge.
“Not only is this a gross form of anti-religious bigotry, it’s also unconstitutional,” Burch said last week. “Harris’ version of being Catholic is a Catholic who surrenders their core beliefs.”