Joe Biden: Christians Made a ‘Faustian Bargain’ with Donald Trump

Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed on Thursday that Christians have made a “Faustian bargain,” with President Donald Trump.

Biden made the claim during an interview with the Indianapolis Star wherein he was asked why Christians, including Vice President Mike Pence, had embraced Trump so thoroughly. Biden responded that Christians had made a Faustian bargain — a term used to describe someone selling their soul — with Trump in exchange for him supporting their socially conservative positions.

“Look, I think they made a Faustian bargain,” the former vice president said. “And I think the bargain is, as long as you say you’re going to take on the LGBTQ community, as long as you say you’re going to end abortion in any circumstances, as long as you say those things, we will overlook your personal conduct, we will overlook the things you say.”

Biden said he believed it was “a bargain that more and more Christians, quote unquote, are beginning to walk away from” because Trump was testing “the limits” of what was acceptable. The former vice president, who last year claimed that those supporting traditional marriage because of their religion were the “dregs of society,” told the Star the only question remained if Christians would “choose hope over fear” and vote for him.

“Even the supporters know who he is as a person. The question that is left for me is to let them know who I am. Let them know who we are,” he said. “That we really do choose hope over fear. That we really choose truth over lies. That we really do choose unity over division and science over fiction.”

Biden’s comments are similar to those his former running mate, President Barack Obama, made in 2016 when mocking Christians for saying they had forgiven Trump for comments he previously made that women might find offensive.

“If someone does something terrible … I can forgive ‘em, I suppose, if they’re sincere about it, but I don’t want them necessarily leading the country,” Obama said at the time, before adding it was impossible for Christians and Republicans to support Trump for president.

“You can’t have it both ways here,” he said. “You can’t repeatedly denounce what is said by someone and then say, ‘But I’m still going to endorse them to be the most powerful person in the planet and to put them in charge.’”