Skip to main content

For the Record: O holy night

Paste BN

We are all for a good feud — what would we do in a world without Kendrick vs. Drake, Taylor vs. Kanye, Harry vs. Mitch*? As Donald Trump has shown us throughout his presidential campaign (and really, his entire life), he is also about the feuds. So what happens when a man who thinks he's infallible gets into a fight with a man who is basically infallible to about 1/7 of the world's population? You get Friday's For the Record. Let's do this.

*When Harry Met Mitch is a play about politics waiting to happen and we're on it, don't you worry.

The battle you had no idea was coming

The match started over The Wall. Pope Francis, hanging out on the Pope Plane, said, when asked about the Donald, that anyone who wants to build walls instead of bridges is "not a Christian." Pope 1, Trump 0. Enter Trump, miles away in South Carolina. Trump not only said he is indeed a Christian, but that the pope is clearly being used to spout lies about Trump: "They obviously got to the pope. He doesn't know me ... the Pope heard only one side of the story." But the pope does what the pope wants, as evidenced by his choice in popemobiles and public transportation. So, still pope 1, Trump 0.

Francis chimed in again, getting all pope-y on us and saying he would give Trump the benefit of the doubt, because a man would only be un-Christian if he said things about, again, building a wall. Round goes to Trump, for making the pope think that maybe he hadn't said those things even though he really did and he wants us all to know he did. Pope 1, Trump 1.

Later, Trump released basically a non sequitur of a statement: "If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President." If the Vatican was attacked, we doubt that the pope would be particularly worried over who did or did not win the U.S. presidency; he'd have other things on his mind. Pope 2, Trump 1. Still, Trump also called the pope "disgraceful" for questioning his faith. We figure Francis, being the pope who gives people the benefit of the doubt, would sort of agree with him, bringing us to pope 2, Trump 2.

It ended with Trump kind of relenting during Thursday night's town hall, saying that he respects the pope: "I think he’s doing a very good job, he’s got a lot of energy, but I think he was very much misinterpreted. And I also think he was given misinformation." That's basically the highest praise you can expect from the Donald. Round goes to Francis. Pope 3, Trump 2. Pope wins the match (for now)!

Townhall v. townhall

It has been a week of no debates and only the leadup to primaries/caucuses, praise baby Jesus. So in their stead, with merely a day and a half to go before the Republican primary in the Palmetto State and the Democratic caucuses in the Silver State, candidates made their cases at town halls for both parties. Out in South Carolina, half of the Republican candidates on display got personal, with John Kasich talking about the deaths of his parents and Jeb(!) Bush telling the story of how he fell in love with his wife. In Las Vegas, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton vied for Nevadans' votes by discussing immigration reform and the economy. And so begin the countdown clocks to Saturday.

More from the campaign trail

Berning Hope

In 2008, Shepard Fairey had hope. In 2016, he feels the Bern. In 2020, maybe he'll be praying to Yeezus. Where can we buy the campaign poster?

Facebook Twitter Email