MSNBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin has left liberals cheering--and conservatives furious--with a hot take on conservative Christians' response to the Herschel Walker scandal.
Mohyeldin took to Twitter to question the Christian bona fides of Evangelical voters who are sticking by Walker, the MAGA Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Georgia currently held by Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock.
Despite the revelation that in 2009 he paid for a woman's abortion, an act Republicans profess to consider murder, many Republicans have vigorously defended Walker against criticism.
That dynamic gave Mohyeldin pause, as it has for many of us, especially given that the supposedly devout Christian Walker's opponent is an actual reverend.
He perfectly laid out this absurd hypocrisy in his tweet, seen below.
\u201cImagine being so Christian that you opt to vote for a man who reportedly committed violence against his family, fathered multiple children with different women, paid for an abortion and was absent as a father - rather than vote for a reverend who studied and taught Christianity!\u201d— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
Mohyeldin wrote:
"Imagine being so Christian that you opt to vote for a man who reportedly committed violence against his family, fathered multiple children with different women, paid for an abortion and was absent as a father - rather than vote for a reverend who studied and taught Christianity!"
The scandal surrounding Walker has intensified seemingly by the hour since the initial revelation that he allegedly urged the anonymous woman to have an abortion, paid for it, and sent her a get-well card.
That came to light Monday night in a bombshell article in The Daily Beast, which revealed that a former girlfriend of Walker's had obtained an abortion at Walker's urging. The woman submitted as proof to The Daily Beast both a signed card in which Walker provided a check for the procedure, a bank receipt for the deposited check, and a receipt from the abortion clinic.
Soon after the news broke, Walker's son Christian Walker, a far-right Republican social media personality, took to multiple platforms to air horrific allegations of spousal and child abuse against his father, who he also says was entirely absent from his life as a child, as well as his multiple other children, all fathered with different women.
Allegations of abuse from Walker's mother were already made public in 2008 during an interview, clips from which recently resurfaced in an August ad from the Republican Accountability Project PAC.
Walker has been lauded as a hero by Republicans and especially Evangelical Christians for his extreme anti-abortion views. Walker has supported South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's proposed national abortion ban, though Walker thinks the law doesn't go far enough--he wants abortion banned entirely with no exceptions, whereas Graham's legislation bans it after 15 weeks.
Republicans, of course, often tout themselves as the party of "family values" and the Party has merged with the far-right Evangelical movement to such a degree that the two are one and the same.
But the revelations of Walker's past as what they would deem a baby murderer, as well as an abusive, absent, and promiscuous father--all supposedly anathema to the Evangelical right-wing--hasn't eroded Walker's support one bit among Republicans.
Many have defended Walker by citing people's ability to grow, evolve in their beliefs, and be redeemed over time--quite the striking claim coming from a group that considers the wrongdoing at hand to be murder.
It's incongruous enough to make you wonder whether the anti-abortion movement doesn't actually believe its own rhetoric and is just hungry for power and control, isn't it?
Prominent GOP figures, including Graham, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and former Republican President Donald Trump have publicly claimed the scandal is a Democrat-led hoax with the aim of boosting Warnock's chances in November, and they're sticking by him no matter what.
Just as Jesus would've done, right?
On Twitter, people applauded Mohyeldin's perfect take on this absurd display of rank hypocrisy.
\u201c@AymanM You mean it's not actually about babies or fake Christian values?! It's really about power and control?. I'm shocked! #GOP #RoevemberIsComing #GOPLiesAboutEverything\u201d— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
\u201cOne person embodying their religious views is less important to them than the chance to impose these views on millions of others.\u201d— Laila Lalami (@Laila Lalami) 1664992530
None— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
\u201cBeware of people who talk constantly about their "faith" and "humility". Both are manifested in behavior, not speech.\n\nThe English word "hypocrite" is derived from the Attic Greek word \u1fe0\u0314\u03c0\u03bf\u03ba\u03c1\u1fd0\u03c4\u03ae\u03c2, meaning "stage actor".\u201d— Leslie Molson (@Leslie Molson) 1664989509
\u201c@AymanM You are talking about Hershel right? Sounds like Trump, I got lost there for a second.\u201d— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
\u201cIt makes sense. Evangelical Christianity encourages people to sin because God's grace abounds. The more abusive and criminal a person is, the better Jesus looks. Jesus needs all the American PR he can get. He's a product, after all.\u201d— #LandIsNotProperty Mwalimu Wandia (@#LandIsNotProperty Mwalimu Wandia) 1665022432
\u201c@AymanM Our outrage at their hypocrisy makes them all the more rabid about defending Walker.\u201d— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
\u201c@AymanM Not just any reverend, but the senior pastor for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church. That's closest you'll come to Protestant royalty. The two candidates could not be more opposite in education, accomplishment and leadership.\u201d— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
\u201c@AymanM A religious Georgia voter would be a hypocrite to vote for a violent former football star - the GOP candidate for US Senate.\n\nGeorgia's incumbent senator is Rev Raphael Warnock - inspiring as pastor & in Congress.\nIf I lived in Georgia, I'd be proud to re-elect Senator Warnock.\u201d— Ayman (@Ayman) 1664985494
\u201cIt's not Christianity the religious right is voting with ...it never was.\u201d— Ameshia Cross (@Ameshia Cross) 1664989190
Over the ensuing days since The Daily Beast's initial report dropped, the plot has thickened significantly. Though Walker claims he has no idea who the woman making the claims is.
She has since revealed that is impossible, because she is also the mother of one of his children.
