Fox host Bill Hemmer – the same guy who recently exploited the 9/11 anniversary to bash President Obama – also exploited Pope Francis’ visit to the White House for the same purpose.
Guest Jim Nicholson, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See (the Vatican), and, Hemmer “forgot” to mention, a former chairman of the RNC, quickly complained about the pope’s stance on climate change.
NICHOLSON: “He [The Pope] was consistent with his recent encyclical where he emphasized his beliefs about global warming and its effects on what he calls our common home and he has some prescriptive ideas about that, which many of us have hesitation over, particularly over the use of fossil fuels to bring the billion plus people, who are still in dire poverty, out of poverty. “ Nicholson went on to say nice things about the pope. Nicholson praised his “wonderful, uplifting message” and called him “a loving, simple soul” who “deserves to be loved.”
But it wasn’t long before Hemmer got to the Obama bashing.
HEMMER: Mr. Ambassador, give us a sense, too, of how the guest list comes about and whether or not you know, based on your experience at the Vatican, whether or not something is approved or perhaps not approved. You had an openly gay Episcopalian bishop there, you had transgender activists. And there’s been a couple stories written in the past couple of days the Vatican was not happy with that. Does the Vatican have the power to say, “Don’t invite them” to a ceremony like this?
Nicholson said the Vatican could make that request but that it probably hadn’t.
NICHOLSON: The overriding factor is love, acceptance, forgiveness. So, I would suspect that they were irritated by that and so were many of us because you wouldn’t see the White House having President Xi come to the White House and inviting the Falun Gong to a reception of the President of China. To me, it was pretty insensitive to do that. …I think it was real insensitivity on the part of the president and the White House.
Comparing LGBT folk to a group that has been banned and persecuted in China is a bit over the top, don’t you think?
Watch it below, from the September 22, America’s Newsroom.
Is “there have been a couple of articles” equal to “some people say”?