From Donald Trump at the top to Newt Gingrich at the murky bottom, Republicans spent Easter weekend attacking everything from conservatism’s perceived enemies to the concept of inclusivity to Easter eggs.
The MAGA messiah himself marked Easter Sunday with a 170-word caps-locked run-on sentence on his troubled Truth Social platform. The disjointed rant began: “HAPPY EASTER TO ALL, INCLUDING CROOKED AND CORRUPT PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES THAT ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024, AND PUT ME IN PRISON …”
President Joe Biden released a statement in support of the 15th annual Transgender Day of Visibility, saying, “we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives.”
The day has been celebrated every March 31 since 2009, and its coinciding with Easter Sunday this year seems to have really ruffled the GOP’s threadbare moral fabric.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the statement was “blasphemous” and demanded that Biden “issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only — the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
The Republican What-Would-Jesus-Do lovefest continued with House Speaker Mike Johnson writing on X that the “Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter — which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Biden’s acknowledgement of the Transgender Day of Visibility “an obscene insult to every Christian.”
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville spent Good Friday quote-tweeting a misleading New York Post article claiming that the Bidens banned religious themes in an egg-decorating contest (they didn’t—the rules are decades old) and wrote that “Democrats are a Satanic cult.” Other Republicans like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem repeated the misinformation about anti-Christian Easter eggs.
Not to be out-pioused, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used her social media account to claim that “Biden and the Democrats decided Easter – the Holy Day of our Savior’s Resurrection – as transgender day of visibility,” and also rant that “We know that Christ is King and God will not be mocked, just like we know Joe Biden isn’t really the one calling the shots in the White House.”
Greene then tweeted, “Psalm 37:13: ‘but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming,’” but surprisingly (not surprisingly) left off the previous two lines of the psalm: “The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them.” A little too close to home, perhaps?
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates released a statement reminding the transphobic members of the right that the president is a practicing Catholic who “will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.” You need only type “God Bless The USA Bible” into a search bar to find out what Bates was referring to.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, summed it up best, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that the Republican Party’s actions and statements are “just one more instance of folks who do not know how to lead us trying to divide us.”
“This is the opposite of the Christian faith,” Warnock added. “In a moment like this, we need voices, particularly voices of faith, who would use our faith not as a weapon to beat other people down but as a bridge to bring all of us together.”
President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have been improving since his fiery State of the Union speech—as we predicted. At the same time, the Republican Party cannot stop the infighting, even as Donald Trump’s takeover seems to be complete. Markos and Kerry get into Biden’s improving fundamentals as the race to save America heats up.