the most morally reprehensible person to ever run for president of the united states, with his entire history of what he has done to people, what he has done to women, how he s conducted his life, and they took him on as he was the person that was going to save the country or save, in their mind, christianity. but i think fundamentally, yes, we have a political problem in the country, but i think deeper, we have a soul problem. we have a fundamental soul problem when we have an entire segment of our society who no longer believes in the fundamental message of jesus christ, about loving one another and respecting one another and treating everybody as you want to be treated. they don t believe that anymore. and that s a soul spiritual crisis for our country, and pete s put his finger right on it. well, katty, it s more than a rejection. it s a do away with it, get this away from here. it will hurt you. it will wussify you, make you weaker, and i heard a direct echo in pete s piece to a
summarized by my friend and former colleague, pete wehner. from his piece in the atlantic, throughout that speech, donald trump jr. painted a scenario in which trump supporters, americans living in red america, are under relentless attack from a wicked and brutal enemy. he portrayed it as an existential battle between good and evil. one side must prevail. the other must be crushed. this, in turn, justifies any necessary means to win, and the former president s son has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the gop. the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. the teachings of jesus have, quote, gotten us nothing. it s worse than that, really. the ethic of jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. if the ethic of jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a little bit more civilly, with a touch
more grace, then it needs to go. decency is for suckers. joining our conversation is the author of that brilliant piece, pete wehner, contributing writer for the atlantic. matt dowd and katty kay are still here as well. pete, i read it twice. it s brilliant. it s shocking, and it s important because what happens on the right matters, and i say this every day. it s at the intersection of an extremist threat and understanding their tactics and understanding the messaging to their base is really important, and your points about brutality and the absence of seeing the other side as humans deserving of grace is part of how we are where we are, no? yeah, i agree. it s good to be with you, nicole. thanks for having me on. i very much agree. the way to understand this, in terms of the trumpian movement, the maga movement, is a certain predicates have to be laid in order for them to execute what they want to execute, and some
can t take care of a kid with appendicitis because they are so overwhelmed. that will happen in many places. i worry about that immensely, and that s the major reason we ve got to keep this under control and stop it from spreading wildly, because we need a functioning health system. dr. jha, thank you so much for starting us off this hour and being part of the mental health conversation as well. i m really grateful. matt dowd and katty kay are sticking around. when we come back, the disgraced ex-president s oldest son has become a poster boy of sorts for the distortion of decency in politics, going as far as suggesting that the teachings of jesus of turning the other cheek have gotten republicans nowhere fast. the atlantic s pete wehner writes about that. plus we ll try to untangle a bizarre suggestion from rand paul, who says democrats stole the election by persuading people to vote for them. that really happened. ahead of security talks between the u.s. and russia, an alarmin
view mirror. i get that. i have some of the same impulses, but i don t think it s the responsible thing to do. these guys are playing for keeps. pete, the white evangelical base, and correct me if i m wrong, but used to be a force that pulled republicans toward more awareness on climate change, toward getting involved with poverty, toward ending malaria, toward more aggressive action globally. they now, i think, at a rate of 85% support donald trump. it s not only that they support donald trump in terms of voting for him. it is that many of them have been his sword and his shield. they ve been, in a sense, the tip of the spear for some of his worst things. why has that happened? it s a complicated story. i think the simplified version, the accurate version is that a lot of people who describe themselves as evangelicals have subordinated faith to politics and to partisan passions and a kind of sociology or a cultural