Religious Right activist Gary Bauer has been a steadfast supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, even since the release of a tape of Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women. In an interview yesterday with Jerry Newcombe, Bauer twisted himself into knots defending Trump to skeptical Christians, comparing backing Trump against Hillary Clinton to siding with Stalin to defeat Hitler, and declaring that Christians should still have supported the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas even if they believed the sexual harassment allegations against him were true.
Bauer, who was active in the effort to confirm Thomas in 1991, said that he didn’t believe Anita Hill’s allegations that Thomas had sexually harassed her, but insisted that Christians should still have supported Thomas even if the allegations were true. “Even if what she said was true, which I don’t believe it was,” he said, “Clarence Thomas was put on the Supreme Court and for the last 25 years has defended the sanctity of life, religious liberty, the Constitution of the United States; his vote has been the deciding vote in multiple things that were incredibly important to the body of Christ and to men and women of faith in America … and to American freedom. Would Christians say that, well, if those things are true I wouldn’t have wanted him on the Supreme Court?”
After comparing Trump to the biblical figure of King David, Bauer made the theological argument that everyone is a sinner, so in elections “you’re always choosing between two sinners.”
Later in the interview, Bauer compared Christians supporting Trump to the United States collaborating with the Soviet Union in World War II. “You know, I’ve heard this ‘Christians can’t get in bed, figuratively speaking, with somebody who does evil things’ or whatever,” he said. “And I would say to those people, then, the United States as a somewhat Christian nation, and we had a Christian president during most of World War II, should we not have sided with the Soviet Union, godless communists, to defeat Nazism?”
He added that “the Bible is full of believing men and women who advised wicked kings,” such as Daniel advising Nebuchadnezzar, who “was not exactly a guy you would want dating your daughter or handling your finances.”
