On Sunday's PBS News Weekend, only two days before the presidential election, anchor John Yang harped constantly on social issues in order to cast Republicans, specifically Trump supporters, as extremists, portraying the views of a small minority of Christian Trump supporters as representing evangelical Christians in general.

One night after attacking Republicans as transphobic, PBS News Weekend, again anchored by Yang, fearmongered over Trump’s Christian conservative supporters with the help of yet another activist guest, again without any conservative voice or argument in rebuttal.

John Yang, Anchor: Now, in the closing days of the campaign, some of his supporters have characterized Kamala Harris in biblical terms.

[clip] David Rem, Trump Childhood Friend: She is the devil, whoever screamed that out. She is the Antichrist.

Yang: How did evangelicals come to hold such strong views about the candidates? Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a history professor at Calvin University in Michigan. Her work focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics.

Du Mez is also the author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, which, according to a rave at the left-leaning review site Kirkus Reviews, “characterize[s] white evangelicals throughout as racist, hypernationalistic, and utterly patriarchal.” Another balanced news source at tax-funded PBS!

Du Mez has a foolproof Christian detector, evidently.

Du Mez: It’s very popular in evangelical spaces to hear language of God’s anointed, God’s chosen one, when Donald Trump comes up. And this is very convenient language because, of course, on the surface, Donald Trump does not appear to be a Christian. He does not appear to exemplify Christian virtue. But the idea that God has selected him nevertheless, has selected him, perhaps even because he doesn`t exemplify traditional Christian virtue, to do something special in this particularly perilous moment. And so they love using language like, Donald Trump is a King Cyrus, selected by God in order to protect God`s special people and restore Christian America.

Yang: Protecting God's special people. You know, in this campaign, he's talked about retribution, about revenge and fighting enemies from within. Does that appeal to evangelical voters as well?

Du Mez: It does, very much so. Within conservative evangelicalism, for a long time, their leaders have really leaned into a kind of us-versus-them framing. So we are God`s people, God is on our side, and those who are against us politically, theologically, are therefore against God. And so this is the kind of framing that really leaves no space for compromise. And it opens one up to demonizing one`s opponents, sometimes quite literally.

And so this language, there's already a long history of that within conservative evangelical circles. And that is something that Trump himself embraces. And then he takes it up a level, even when he`s talking about retribution, when he`s talking about revenge against his enemies. This is very dangerous rhetoric. And within conservative evangelicalism, there is a theological permission structure that actually leans into that rather than offering some restraint.

Are we to believe that the religious left isn't engaged in an us-versus-them battle? The anchor conjured up fantasies of a religious rebellion if the election doesn’t go evangelicals’ way.

Yang: Along those lines, if Donald Trump were to lose and Kamala Harris win next week, how would that affect evangelicals' willingness to accept that outcome?

Du Mez: It's actually quite concerning, because if evangelicals are convinced that it is God's will that Donald Trump become the next president and that doesn't happen, then that will be a crisis moment....

Du Mez previously appeared on PBS back in July, fearmongering about Project 2025 on Amanpour & Co.

This segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.

A transcript is available, click “Expand.”

PBS News Weekend

11/3/24

7:19:23 p.m. (ET)

John Yang: Donald Trump has long cultivated his support among Christian conservatives. He got about 80 percent of the white evangelical Christian vote in 2016 and 2020 and appears to be on track for a similar result this year. But it took on a new tone after the assassination attempt in July.

Donald Trump: I was knocked to the ground essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand. And I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that's to make our country greater than ever.

John Yang: It's a thought shared by many of his supporters.

Dr. Robin Armstrong, Texas Delegate: I think that God spared his life for such a time as this. You know, I really believe that it's a miracle that took place.

John Yang: Now in the closing days of the campaign. Some of his supporters have characterized Kamala Harris in biblical terms.

 

David Rem, Trump Childhood Friend: She is the devil who ever screamed that out. She is the Antichrist.

John Yang: How did evangelicals come to hold such strong views about the candidates. Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a history professor at Calvin University in Michigan. Her work focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics.

Kristin, let's start out by talking about the view that Christian evangelicals hold of Donald Trump and the terms they used to describe him and whether the assassination attempt had any effect on that.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Calvin University: It's very popular in evangelical spaces to hear language of God's anointed, God's chosen one, when Donald Trump comes up. And this is very convenient language because, of course, on the surface, Donald Trump does not appear to be a Christian. He does not appear to exemplify Christian virtue.

But the idea that God has selected him nevertheless has selected him, perhaps even because he doesn't exemplify traditional Christian virtue, to do something special in this particularly perilous moment. And so they love using language like, Donald Trump is a King Cyrus, selected by God in order to protect God's special people and restore Christian America.

John Yang: Protecting God's special people. You know, in this campaign, he's talked about retribution, about revenge and fighting enemies from within. Does that appeal to evangelical voters as well?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez: It does, very much so. Within conservative evangelicalism, for a long time, their leaders have really leaned into a kind of us versus them framing. So we are God's people, God is on our side, and those who are against us politically, theologically, are therefore against God.

And so this is the kind of framing that really leaves no space for compromise. And it opens one up to demonizing one's opponents, sometimes quite literally. And so this language, there's already a long history of that within conservative evangelical circles. And that is something that Trump himself embraces.

And then he takes it up a level, even when he's talking about retribution, when he's talking about revenge against his enemies. This is very dangerous rhetoric. And within conservative evangelicalism, there is a theological permission structure that actually leans into that rather than offering some restraint.

John Yang: You talk about demonizing, and you heard that a gentleman at the Madison Square Garden rally call her the Antichrist. And this morning, Trump at a rally called the Democratic Party, a demonic party, talk about that sort of personalization on Kamala Harris of these thoughts and feelings.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez: Yeah, that kind of rhetoric is not rare in these spaces. Again, to see one's political enemies as enemies of God and therefore as allied with the Devil. To hear that language against Kamala Harris is therefore not surprising. And sometimes you'll hear it in different versions. Antichrist is one variant demonic or Jezebel, channeling the Jezebel spirit. Jezebel was an Old Testament figure who was an enemy of God's people, and met a violent end, thrown out of a window and eaten by dogs. And this kind of language then it presents her as the political enemy, but also as a spiritual enemy.

And so it really ups the stakes. And it also is dehumanizing her as not a political opponent, not a member of an opposing party, but as demonic or as an enemy of God. This kind of rhetoric, kind of spiritual warfare rhetoric need not lead to actual violence, but in historic cases, it often does.

John Yang: Along those lines, if Donald Trump were to lose and Kamala Harris win next week, how would that affect evangelicals willingness to accept that outcome?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez: It's actually quite concerning because if evangelicals are convinced that it is God's will that Donald Trump become the next president and that doesn't happen, then that will be a crisis moment. And what we have seen in the past in 2020, we kind of have a preview of this because there too, there were prophecies that Trump was God's anointed, was God's chosen, and that he was going to win the election, and then he did not.

But in these charismatic spaces, they continue to insist that he was in fact, God's chosen one and that God was going to make a way. Many of these people were at the Capitol on January 6th thinking that God would make a way one way or another. And what this does, it just ups the stakes of the election to kind of spiritual end game.

John Yang: Kristin Kobes Du Mez of Calvin University, thank you very much.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez: Thank you.