by Former President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly tried to appeal to Christian voters in recent weeks by accusing the Biden administration of criminalizing Americans for their faith.
On multiple occasions this month, Trump has claimed that President Biden has “persecuted” Catholics in particular. Biden himself is Catholic.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Catholics,” Trump said. saying during a demonstration in Coralville, Iowa. “They are violently and cruelly persecuting Catholics.”
Mr. Trump repeated similar comments days later at another rally, in Waterloo, and at a video Published before Christmas, it said that “Americans of faith are being persecuted like this nation has never seen before.”
The message fits into a broader theme for Trump, who, facing criminal charges in connection with his bid for power after losing the 2020 election and criticism for praising strongmen, has sought to portray Biden and Democrats as the real threats to democracy.
Here’s a closer look at his claims.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Under corrupt Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted like never before seen in this nation. “Catholics in particular are being targeted and evangelicals are surely on the watch list as well.”
– in a video on Truth Social this month
FAKE. Experts say they know of no data to support the idea that Catholics in the United States are being persecuted by the government for their faith, much less at record levels.
“In terms of evidence, I find it quite difficult to support the idea that there is a marked and concerted increase in a particular type of attacks against Christians,” said Jason Bruner, a professor of religious studies at Arizona State University and a historian. that he studies Christian persecution.
Instead, Bruner said, Trump is most likely extrapolating cases (for example, churches that faced sanctions for congregating during the Covid pandemic or anti-abortion activists who have been charged with crimes) to suggest a systemic problem.
“There is a long history of discrimination against Catholics in the United States, from the formulation of the framework to the 1970s,” said Frank Ravitch, a professor of law and religion at Michigan State University. “And if anything, it’s probably better now in terms of non-discrimination than it probably ever has been.”
Trump’s claims, Ravitch said, show “an incredible blindness to the history of anti-Catholicism in America.”
Advocates tracking Christians fleeing persecution around the world point out that the Biden administration has been gradually increasing the number of refugees admitted to the United States after the number fell precipitously during the Trump era. At the end of fiscal year 2023, the country Recorded around 31,000 Christian refugee arrivals, about half of all refugees and the highest number recorded since fiscal year 2016 (not all necessarily fleeing persecution for religious reasons).
“We are encouraged by that track record,” said Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization that has pushed The Biden administration must establish policies that welcome those who face faith-based discrimination.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for sources behind his claims.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Over the past three years, the Biden administration has sent SWAT teams to arrest pro-life activists.”
– in a video on Truth Social this month
This is misleading. The Justice Department has filed a growing number of criminal prosecutions under a law that makes it a violation to interfere with reproductive health care by blocking entrances, using threats or damaging property. In at least one case, the defendant’s family reclaimed He was arrested by a SWAT team, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that was not the case.
The law is called Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE and was enacted in 1994. Federal prosecutors have used it to pursue 24 criminal cases, involving 55 defendants, since January 2021, according to the Department of Justice.
While most of those cases involved acts at facilities that provided abortion services, prosecutors have also used it to accuse several individuals that supported abortion access and targeted Florida centers that offered pregnancy counseling and alternatives to abortion.
Furthermore, Trump omits that such arrests are not for “pro-life” activism but for specific actions, including violence, that prosecutors say were attempts to block access to or interfere with reproductive health care services.
In one case, federal attorneys loaded a man for allegedly using a slingshot to shoot metal ball bearings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the Chicago area. In another, prosecutors said a New York man used padlocks and glue to prevent a clinic door from opening. And three men were accused of bombing a clinic in California; one recently pleaded guilty.
Trump’s claims about using “SWAT teams” may be a reference to the 2022 arrest of a Catholic activist in Pennsylvania. The defendant, Mark Houck, was loaded with pushing a volunteer at a Planned Parenthood center in Philadelphia in 2021. Mr. Houck’s defense kept who was responding to abusive comments made by the volunteer toward his 12-year-old son. He was acquitted earlier this year.
Republican lawmakers criticized Houck’s arrest by armed officers, but the FBI rejected the claim that he used a SWAT team and said his tactics were consistent with standard practices.
“Inaccurate claims are being made regarding the arrest of Mark Houck,” the FBI said in a statement. “No SWAT team or SWAT operators were involved. FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck’s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents, and asked him to leave the residence. He did so and he was detained without incident pursuant to an indictment.”
Christopher A. Wray, the director of the FBI, when asked about the circumstances of Mr. Houck’s arresthas said that such decisions are made at the local level, “by career agents on the ground, who have the closest visibility to the circumstances.”
WHAT WAS SAID
“The FBI has been caught profiling devout Catholics as possible domestic terrorists and planning to send undercover spies to Catholic churches, like in the old days of the Soviet Union.”
– in a video on Truth Social this month
This needs context. It is likely that Trump was referring to leaked information. January note prepared by the FBI field office in Richmond, Virginia, which warned of the potential for extremism for followers of a “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology. Republicans have criticized the memo for months.
But the memo was withdrawn and the country’s top law enforcement officials have repeatedly denounced it.
The memo warned of possible threats ahead of the 2024 elections and suggested gathering information and developing sources within churches to help identify suspicious activity. He also distinguished between the radicalized and the non-radicalized, saying that “radical-traditionalist Catholics” were a small minority.
Some researchers believe There is some merit to those concerns, even if the memo was flawed. Ravitch, a professor at Michigan State University, said he believed officers were wrong to focus on Catholicism. “What they’re really talking about is an extremely radical type of Christian citizenry,” he said, emphasizing that they are a small subset and not representative of the Roman Catholic Church or evangelicals.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland saying during a congressional hearing in September that he was “horrified” by the memo and that “Catholics are not extremists.” He called suggestions that the government was attacking Americans based on his faith “outrageous,” referencing the fact that his own family fled Europe to escape pre-Holocaust anti-Semitism.
And earlier this month during a Senate hearing, Mr. Wray said of the document: “That particular intelligence product is something that, as soon as I saw it, I was horrified. “I had it removed.”
In a statement this week, the FBI reiterated: “Any characterization that the FBI is targeting Catholics is false.”
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