Amidst all the liberal outrage over NBC’s hiring of Ronna McDaniel, CNN offered an example this morning of what passes for a perfectly acceptable revolving-door hire.
CNN commentator Ashley Allison was on a CNN This Morning panel to discuss Trump’s hawking of a God Bless America Bible.
Allison was the National Coalitions Director for Biden-Harris 2020 and deputy director and senior policy advisor for the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement, where she strategized on running campaigns during “the Resistance.” Her bio features her commitment to “equity.”
Hunt played an old clip of Trump talking about “Two Corinthians” and pressed David Frum and Jonah Goldberg to mock Trump’s marketing push. When it came her turn to comment, Allison displayed a combination of fearmongering and ignorance about America’s founding. Allison claimed that the U.S. was “founded on the separation of church and state.” Hunt echoed that misstatement of the First Amendment, which, of course, says nothing about “separation,” prohibiting only the “establishment” of a state religion.
Allison went on to claim that if elected, Trump will try to impose a theocracy. As she put it, “This is a preview again of how Trump sees the way he wants to rule the world, through an authoritative theology, which is one way, which is. I’m a Christian, but Trump’s governing approach will be, “The Bible is the route in which we are going to govern this country.”
Then, in what might or might not have been an attempt at humor—though she seemed rather serious—Allison claimed that Trump will take credit for having written the Bible. She predicted that if the Bible sales don’t go well, he will say: “Why aren’t people buying it? You know, they asked me what to put in the Bible . . . ‘I helped write this thing.’ That’s the kind of fraudulent behavior that this, this exhibits to me. And he’s just willing to say whatever he can to seem like he’s the center of the story, even when we know it’s so extreme.”
This is CNN, which claims it’s devoted to facts, but traffics in wild speculation about the future to scare its viewers to stay glued to the screen.
Jonah Goldberg expressed some disagreement with Allison, suggesting Trump doesn’t want to impose a theocracy….but a lot of his allies do:
GOLDBERG: I don’t think at all, truly that Donald Trump wants to impose a theocracy. I think there are a bunch of people in his orbit who do, right? There are people who, really — Donald Trump, we talked about going to Communion, he says, and when they give me my little cracker. I mean, like this is a guy who’s not religiously literate in the slightest. But the people who are most invested in him, surrounding him, and want to fill the federal bureaucracy, they actually take this theocracy stuff very seriously.
Note: This wasn’t the first time that Allison’s less-than-encyclopedic command of the facts has been exposed. Earlier this month, our Nicholas Fondacaro caught Allison absurdly suggesting that before the latest proposed legislation, there were no laws governing immigration on the books!
Here’s the transcript.
CNN This Morning
3/27/24
6:45 am EDTKASIE HUNT: All right, now there’s this, which is really the one that everyone at this table is talking about this morning. Former president turned Bible salesman?
DONALD TRUMP: All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book. I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.
HUNT: Make America pray again. After launching sneaker and cologne lines last month, the former president, okay, so he’s selling this is, get this, the God Bless the USA Bible. That’s in partnership with country singer Lee Greenwood. He takes the stage to Greenwood’s music.
It’s only $59.99. And just for that, you get a copy of the Constitution, a copy of the Bill of Rights, a copy of the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Declaration of Independence. As well as the Bible, I guess.
. . .
Ashley, do you want to weigh in here [chuckles]?
ASHLEY ALLISON: Not particularly [laughter], but I guess, you know, to take a slightly more serious tone on this, is, this is a preview again of how Trump sees the way he wants to rule the world, through an authoritative theology, which is one way, which is. I’m a Christian, but the Bible is the route in which we are going to govern this country, even though this country was founded on the separation of church and state.
And so, it’s funny, and yet it’s not, because it is a tell that if he wins in November and becomes president, he could not just say like I’m selling Bibles, but I’m mandating that in our schools, everyone has a Bible, in these institutions everyone has a Bible. And that’s not what America is about. There are people from all different faiths. And that’s the beauty of this patchwork cloth that we have that Donald Trump doesn’treally seem to appreciate.
HUNT: And Jonah, pulling together to Ashley’s excellent point, the founding documents of the country into the, I mean, they’re the separation of church and state was a founding ideal for a country that was breaking away from Britain. And those documents that the founders wrote.
To kind of put them together and then hawk, it does, I mean —
JONAH GOLDBERG: Yeah, but it’s a great value in a bundle [laughter.] And they’re all public domain now, so they can get them really cheap for printing purposes.
But no, look, I mean, like I don’t think at all, truly that Donald Trump wants to impose a theocracy. I think there are a bunch of people in his orbit who do, right? There are people who, really — Donald Trump, we talked about going to Communion, he says, and when they give me my little cracker. I mean, like this is a guy who’s not religiously literate in the slightest. But the people who are most invested in him, surrounding him, and want to fill the federal bureaucracy, they actually take this theocracy stuff very seriously, and I do think that this mixing — it really is an interesting mix of God and Mammon isn’t it that we’re seeing? And I think, to your point, I think that’s where the real threat is if you’re concerned about that kind of thing.
. . .
ALLISON: You know, I will, I think one thing that I could, two things I bet that Donald Trump will say if the Bible sales don’t go: “Why aren’t people buying it? You know, they asked me what to put in the Bible.”
That will be one claim that he makes. “And I helped write this thing.” That’s the kind of fraudulent behavior that this, this exhibits to me. And he’s just willing to say whatever he can to seem like he’s the center of the story, even when we know it’s so extreme.