'Morally sick': Ex-Southern Baptist leader condemns Trump and Vance's lies
Former Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore sees "the devil at play" in Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's stories about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
Both candidates on the Republican presidential ticket have spread false claims about migrants stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, which has resulted in bomb threats made to government buildings and schools. Moore condemned their morals on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"This is part of the moral sickness that we see around us right now," said Moore, a former high-ranking official in the Southern Baptist Convention. "I think there is some good news on the ground in Springfield. Christianity Today did a report in Springfield about what churches and pastors are doing. There is not the kind of demonizing of Haitian migrants there locally, but it's coming in from the outside and it's coming in all over social media.
"This is going to get people hurt. We have children who are sheltered in place, scared."
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On CNN Sunday, Vance admitted the claims were untrue but defended them by saying they were necessary to alert the media to tension in the town. But Moore rejected that argument and said the accusations are far worse than what the the vice presidential candidate calls "cat memes."
"This isn't just cat memes," Moore said, "and that's part of what is so alarming right now is we act as though it doesn't matter if we lie our way to the truth, if we just bear false witness against people, claim that they are abducting pets, using every kind of stereotype and demonization of people from other places, it's just — it's morally sick and morally wrong."
Moore lamented that many evangelicals still back Trump and his running mate, but he felt they had been consuming inaccurate information.
"I think there are some people who are confused by the kind of misinformation, disinformation that rockets around the place right now," Moore said. "And for those people, we need to simply talk about what's actually happening and how these words can be dangerous.
"But I'm less worried about the political ramifications of this than I am this ongoing cycle of demonizing one group after the other. That just can't keep going like this, we can't keep living like this as a society — something has got to give."
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