{"id":4144,"date":"2016-02-19T18:58:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T18:58:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-02-19T18:58:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T18:58:04","slug":"bill_donohue_explains_what_happened_between_trump_and_the_pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/02\/19\/bill_donohue_explains_what_happened_between_trump_and_the_pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Donohue Explains What Happened Between Trump and the Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: There is a story that Trump is backing away on his criticism of the pope. And the pope is backing away from his criticism of Trump. So here a couple of people that… The pope especially. This guy goes out and says things. And almost without fail, when he strays outside being the pope, when he ventures away and goes an outside the Vicar of Christ and gets involved in, say, in this case American politics, presidential race, invariably somebody at the Vatican has to walk it back. “No, no, no, no!” They say.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s not what il Papa meant,” and then they “clarify.” And this is…? How many times now has this had to happen, that the pope said something…? Actually, the pope can be defended on this accurately. Bill Donohue… We have sound bites coming up, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League — who is a great guy. I\u2019ve interviewed Bill Donohue for The Limbaugh Letter<\/a> and I\u2019ve watched him on TV. This guy\u2019s a bulldog. This guy is fabulous at what he does. He\u2019s one of the best people at what he does of any people doing what they do.<\/p>\n

He defends Catholicism and he defends attacks on the church just famously well. I would think that this guy would be every pope\u2019s best buddy. That\u2019s just my guess and assessment. And we\u2019ll have those two sound bites coming up, because apparently what happened was the pope was asked a rather — not complicated, but — detailed question, and the pope gave a detailed answer from which one sentence was called: “Well, if you build walls you\u2019re not a Christian.” It turns out you can make the case that the pope was not even talking about Trump at that point.<\/line><\/p>\n

But the media saw a golden opportunity here to stir the pot, and did. So anyway, Trump\u2019s walking it back and he\u2019s walking back.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: So yesterday at this time we were all under the impression that the pope had said that Donald Trump is not a Christian because the pope thinks that people that build walls instead of bridges are not Christian. Trump reacted. Thought he was a disgrace, the pope was disgraceful, what he said was disgraceful, and said that he was a Christian and it went on from there. <\/p>\n

And as time went on, the pope, via Vatican spokesmen, sort of backed away, which happens. The pope ventures outside church matters, it seems like every time he does, he says something that the Vatican has to walk back. And Trump, for his part, has also moderated his tone, saying that he gets a lot of publicity, but he\u2019s not comfortable with this publicity. And he\u2019s not excited here about being in this knock-down drag-out with the pope. So both people have backed away. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Trump from, I guess this is last night, Columbia, South Carolina. You might want to say that one guy that Trump will not double down on is the pope. So it is during part two of their Republican town hall event, and Anderson Cooper said: “Mr. Trump how surprised were you by what the pope said? For those who don\u2019t know, part of what he said was a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian. This is not the gospel. What do you say to that, Mr. Trump?” <\/p>\n

TRUMP: I didn\u2019t think it was a good thing for him to say frankly. The pope made the statement and I think it was probably a little bit nicer statement than was reported by you folks in the media. Because after I read it, it was a little bit softer. He also talked about having a wall is not Christian and he\u2019s got an awfully big wall at the Vatican, I will tell you. <\/p>\n

RUSH: And then Cooper said, “But, look, I remember you said to me you tried not to do things wrong so that you don\u2019t have to ask for forgiveness. Was there a moment when you first heard the pope had said something about you that you thought maybe I\u2019m going to have to ask for forgiveness? <\/p>\n

TRUMP: No, no, look, I have a lot of respect for the pope. I think he\u2019s got a lot of personality. He\u2019s very different. He\u2019s a very different kind of a guy. And I think he\u2019s doing a very good job, a lot of energy. But I would say that I think he was very much misinterpreted. And I also think he was given false information. People that live in the United States — <\/p>\n

COOPER: Would you like to meet with him and talk to him about it? <\/p>\n

TRUMP: I\u2019ll do it any time he wants. I think that would be very interesting. No, I like him. I like him, his personality. I like what he represents and I certainly have great respect for the position. <\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: There you go. See. Great respect for the position of pope. Well, from the Vatican side of things: “A spokesperson for pope Francis clarified the pontiff\u00c2\u2019s criticism of Donald Trump\u00c2\u2019s plan to build a border wall, saying that the remark wasn\u00c2\u2019t ‘a personal attack.\u2019 On Thursday, the pope told reporters on his plane that building walls ‘is not Christian.\u2019 But the pontiff\u00c2\u2019s spokesperson said it\u00c2\u2019s a comment he\u00c2\u2019s made before, adding that the pope wants to avoid weighing in on American politics.” <\/p>\n

Sorry, folks, that\u2019s a little hard. He does weigh in. “‘The pope said what we already know, if we followed his teaching and positions: we shouldn\u00c2\u2019t build walls, but bridges,\u2019 the spokesperson said in a statement, according to CNBC. ‘It\u00c2\u2019s his generic view, coherent with the nature of solidarity from the gospel.'” <\/p>\n

The spokesperson then said, “This wasn\u00c2\u2019t, in any way, a personal attack or an indication on who to vote for. The pope has clearly said he didn\u00c2\u2019t want to get involved in the electoral campaign in the US and also said that he said what he said on the basis of what he was told [about Trump], hence giving him the benefit of the doubt.” <\/p>\n

So let\u2019s go to Bill Donohue. Bill Donohue, the Catholic League, was on Special Report with Bret Baier last night at 6:00. And Bret Baier read the actual statement here. Although it was said, let\u2019s read it out. It\u2019s obviously in Italian. But here\u2019s what it is. “Donald Trump in a recent interview said you, the pope, are a political man and maybe you\u2019re a pawn of the Mexican government as far as immigration policy is concerned. He said that if elected, he would build a 25 kilometer-long wall along the border. I\u2019d like to ask you –” this is a reporter asking the pope “– I\u2019d like to ask you, what do you think of these accusations against you and if an American Catholic can vote for somebody like this.” <\/p>\n

Pope Francis said, “Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as “animal politicus.” So at least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people. … A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel. … As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I\u2019m not getting involved in that. I say this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way. In this, I give the benefit of the doubt.” That\u2019s the transcription and then Bill Donohue weighed in. <\/p>\n

DONOHUE: That\u2019s exactly the way it should be. What I find striking, because the pope laid down conditions, didn\u2019t he? He used the word “if.” He used the word “only.” But in fact what we have here is the reporter trying to say, “Well, should Catholics really vote for a person like this?” Now we\u2019ve been told ad nauseam that Catholics should not listen to the pope about anything, that they\u2019re going to exercise their independence. Now we\u2019re supposed to line up single file. This was a setup on the pope. They misrepresented what Trump has said. And now the media are misrepresenting — except for what you did. You accurately reported what the pope said. A lot of people are not. <\/p>\n

RUSH: There\u2019s a point to this. The pope\u2019s answer to that question was rather lengthy. It was detailed, and it did contain a bunch of ifs, and I\u2019m not sure, I\u2019ll have to rely on your judgment. And Donohue said that was a setup question. The guy set the pope up hoping for an answer so he could run around saying the pope doesn\u2019t like Trump or whatever. And then take it to Trump and say Trump doesn\u2019t like pope and have a back and forth going. <\/line><\/p>\n

So Bret Baier said, “Well, look the Vatican has a giant wall that surrounds it. And many conservatives have a problem with some of the things the pope said beyond what you\u2019re talking about here, because somebody says building a wall along the southern border, a person who thinks only about building a wall is not Christian, that\u2019s going to be a problem for some conservatives, Mr. Donohue.” <\/p>\n

DONOHUE: There\u2019s nothing that either this pope or any other pope has ever said, nor will you find it in the Catholic catechism, anything where the Catholic church says a nation does not have a right to defend its own borders. The Catholic church is solidly in favor of that. What it is simply saying is this: That\u2019s not the end of the conversation. If somebody comes into another country illegally can you deport them? Yes, but if that person has needs that must be tended to, you can\u2019t act immorally and say, get out of here. You\u2019ve got to take care of that person, treat them humanly. So I think what happens is a lot of people want to make it an either\/or, and that\u2019s where the misrepresentation takes place. I\u2019m sympathetic, too. I don\u2019t want people crashing through our borders, and I think those people are right. <\/p>\n

RUSH: He\u2019s obviously going to defend the pope and the Catholic church here. That\u2019s what the mission of the Catholic League is. But the point of this is to illustrate that the question the pope was asked was a really long question and the pope\u2019s answer was a really long answer, and the question wasn\u2019t specifically about Trump except as somebody who might build a wall. It was theoretical here, theoretical there. And the pope did give himself plenty of outs. But the reporter got enough to be able to say: pope says Trump not Christian. Trump not knowing, none of us knowing from shinola what went on. <\/p>\n

Oh, really? Pope says Trump not Christian? And Trump goes, that\u2019s disgraceful, how do you say a private citizen — and it all got going. And when all this came out, everybody started backtracking. Marco Rubio, yesterday in Anderson, South Carolina, had a press conference and during the Q&A he had this to say about the battle between the pope and the Trumpster. <\/p>\n

RUBIO: There\u2019s no nation on earth that\u2019s more compassionate on immigration than we are. We accept a million people a year in the United States, legally, every year. Mexico doesn\u2019t do that. No other country in the world does that. But we\u2019re a sovereign country and we have a right to control who comes in, when they come in and how they come in. Vatican City controls who comes in, when they come in, and how they come in, as a nation state or as a city state. And as a result the United States has the right to do that as well. <\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, that was Rubio answering before all of the context had been presented and broadcast. But, nevertheless, he\u2019s exactly right. This is why I blanch when I hear people say, “We\u2019ve got to stop people dying in the streets.” Nobody\u2019s dying in the streets here. We\u2019ve spent more money and we\u2019ve been more compassionate, no matter how you define it. Disaster relief, with taking immigrants in our country — illegal and legal — our foreign aid budget. It\u2019s laughable to attack the United States as being a nation without compassion or selfish and greedy or what have you, and that\u2019s what Rubio is responding to. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no nation on earth that can hold a candle to us when it comes to immigration. We accept more immigrants in a year than most of the rest of the world combined. It really isn\u2019t close. Mexico: 1,500 immigrants permitted a year. We have anywhere between a million and a million six. So it\u2019s ended up with Trump saying he doesn\u2019t like fighting with the pope. He didn\u2019t double down, went nowhere near there, and it seems like it has leveled off and now become pretty much a nonissue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: There is a story that Trump is backing away on his criticism of the pope. And the pope is backing away from his criticism of Trump. So here a couple of people that… The pope especially. This guy goes out and says things. 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