Joy Reid updated viewers on Trump's latest tweet this morning: "We have an update now on our top story. Donald Trump is doubling down on his defense of the White House aides who resigned this week amid allegations of abuse."
"Just moments ago, Trump tweeted:
People's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false, some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused, life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as due process?
"Joining us to discuss activist Frank Schaeffer, 'Redemption In The Age Of Trump, Fascism and Life.' Frank, I'll get your reaction. We saw Donald Trump's defense of Roy Moore saying he denied the allegations so therefore, you know, there we go. Steve Wynn who has been multiply accused of abuse and sexual harassment, we have to give him a chance. What do you make that he's doubling down on his support for former aide Rob Porter?" Reid said.
Schaeffer quickly got on a roll.
"You know, it's weird this happens in the very week that he was at a prayer breakfast with a bunch of evangelicals and I just want to remind people of the idea that justice and love and compassion is change of mind and repentance and you have to admit what you have done and take the consequences and change your life," he said.
"Since Trump has never admitted that he is a serial abuser of women, who by the way, could not get a security clearance from the FBI if he was hired as a dishwasher in the White House because of his public proclamations and bragging on abuse and brutality toward women -- a point to note, by the way, of course, he's going to double down because if he doesn't he's pointing the finger right at himself and since he is unwilling to repent, he's unwilling to tell the truth and he is surrounded by sycophant, lickspittle Republicans, from Sarah Huckabee on down who have made a profession of defending the indefensible. There are people in the White House defending these coaches who abused women in a serial molestation. That's where we are at. That's who the president is," he said.
"People on social media said there were good people on both sides in the Charlottesville riots that resulted in the death of a young women, Donald Trump has bragged about walking in on teenage girls while they were naked because he owned the pageant and grabbing women by their genitalia," Reid said.
"On his side is Bill O'Reilly and he keeps wanting to give the benefit of the doubt to men accused of abuse and the Roy Moore allegations involved children. How is it that this person is still considered, evangelicals are saying God made him president. There was a piece in Politico that talked about that. How is it there is no separation from these kinds of men and the evangelical community and keep in mind that Rob Porter is a Mormon, and these are men touted as religious men," she said.
"You know, Joy, I know you described yourself as a church girl sometimes and you know my father was a famous evangelist, and I've written about this in 'Letter to Lucy' in terms of my own journey away from this right-wing tradition toward a tradition of beauty and acceptance, but I want to point something out.
"Speaking as someone who knows something about Christianity, if you take the God of the Bible seriously, if God had wanted to send a test to American evangelicals, especially the white evangelical supporters of Trump, that would test their faithfulness, nothing could have shown them up to have failed more than this lust for power that goes along with anything. Trump," he said.
"The molester and the person who attacks our security agencies and by the way, my son is a U.S. Marine, that doesn't sit well with me. Porter, an abuser of women. Kelly, someone who has become a serial liar and shown himself to be in many cases to be a racist in the way that he's talked about a black woman who is in government. Roy moore, a pedophile who these same evangelicals swung behind.
"This is just too much. It's like something out of the Old Testament who the people of god have been tested to see whether they will bow down before something that is false like the golden calf, and they have failed.
"White evangelical America, make no mistake now -- as the solid bedrock supporters of molesters, of pedophiles, of these sorts of folks, have switched sides and they are no longer representing anything that is -- that could be called moral by the traditions of any religion and in terms of a Bible prophecy-type story, these folks are now on the side of everyone that ever stood against justice, and for evil.
"That's where we're at."
