Former Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) said Friday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that the Catholic Bishops who voted to advance guidance that would deny President Joe Biden from receiving communion in light of his support for abortion rights showed a “pretty robust double standard” given they did not criticize former President Donald Trump’s “behavior.”
Cooper asked, “Do you think politics are at play here?”
Kennedy said, “I think it’s hard to — particularly when we see the position of the lack of criticism from other high profile Republican officer holders or appointees. You know, I can understand on the one hand the logic of saying President Biden is the president, he’s a practicing Catholic, we need to clarify these doctrines, fine.”
He continued, “It is odd when you compare the devotion of President Biden to his face with the behavior of former President Trump and the lack of a peep of criticism from The Conference of Catholic Bishops with regards to President Trump’s behavior in office, individually or his policies. So it seems to create a pretty robust double standard whereby you end up targeting Democratic politicians. If this is really a devoted question about life, then let’s lean into the epidemic of gun violence in this country and doing more to prevent gun violence. Let’s lean into the issue of climate change. The conference so far hasn’t done that.”
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