MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart Openly Struggles With How To ‘Move Forward’ And ‘Live’ With Trump Voters
MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart admitted to “grappling” with how to “move forward” and “live” with neighbors who voted for President-elect Donald Trump, who he said ran a campaign that was “openly racist, xenophobic, misogynistic [and] transphobic.”
During his campaign, Trump made promises to initiate mass deportations to combat illegal immigration, against who he was accused of deploying racist rhetoric, and made gender identity issues a focal point of his campaign.
Capehart made the confession to his guest, Reverend Gene Robinson, the retired Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, during an interview on The Sunday Show.
Opening his question, Capehart said: “The thing that I’m grappling with is that someone was elected who ran a campaign that was openly hostile, openly racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, everything.”
He continued: “And yet now the election’s over, folks accept the results, but now how do we move forward when… you have people in their families who voted for him, they work with people who voted for him, they live next to people who voted for him. What do you? How should we deal with those neighbors, co-workers, family members?”
In reply, Robinson admitted that “first of all” people should “remain passionate about protecting these most vulnerable people.”
Criticizing Trump’s promised policies he continued: “If this new president does half of what he says, there will be so many of them in danger.”
As for moving forward, the Christian leader cited The Golden Rule: “I think the way to move forward in a family or in the whole culture is this: Every religion in the world has some version of do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your neighbor, even love your enemies better. Those of us Christians have.”
He added: “And here’s the trick. Loving has little to do with liking. You don’t have to like someone to treat them like the child of God they are. You can argue with them. You can fight with them over all kinds of things. But you can’t not treat them as a person of worth and respect that God created them to be.”
Watch above on MSNBC.
