A reporter for Politico is firing back at critics she says are taking her out of context based on comments she made bashing "Christian nationalists."
Appearing on MSNBC Thursday, Politico national investigative correspondent Heidi Przybyla was asked about the "infusion of Christian nationalism" in Congress following the appointment of Louisiana representative and devout Christian Mike Johnson as House Speaker.
"The base of the Republican Party has shifted, right?" Przybyla began. "Remember when Trump ran in 2016, a lot of the mainline evangelicals wanted nothing to do with the divorced, you know, real estate mogul who had cheated on his wife with a porn star and all of that. So what happened was he was surrounded by this more extremist element. They're gonna hear words like ‘Christian nationalism,' like the ‘New Apostolic reformation.’ These are groups that you should get very, very schooled on because they have a lot of power in Trump's circle."
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"The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists - not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different - is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don't come from any earthly authority. They don't come from Congress, they don't come from the Supreme Court. They come from God. The problem with that is that they are determining- man, men, it is men are determining what God is telling them," Przybyla said.
"And in the past, that so-called natural law is, you know, it's a pillar of Catholicism, for instance. It has been used for good in social justice campaigns, Martin Luther King evoked it in talking about civil rights, but now you have an extremist element of conservative Christians who say that this applies specifically to issues including abortion, gay marriage, and it's going much further than that," she continued, before citing the Alabama Supreme Court ruling on IVF.
A portion of Przybyla's comments, especially the ones talking about how Christian nationalists believe rights come from God not government, went viral on Friday with many critics accusing her of attacking Christians and being ignorant of basic American civics.
The Declaration of Independence cites "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
"Here @MSNBC helpfully makes it clear their disdain for Christians in America," Wade Miller of Citizens for Renewing America said while sharing the clip of Przybyla. "She says that if you believe that your rights come from God, you aren’t a Christian, you are a Christian nationalist. Somehow they seem to not mention that our own founding documents make this proclamation, as have most Americans throughout our history. The radical Atheist Globalists are coming to try to crush ordinary American citizens."
"Our Declaration of Independence, our entire system of government, is based on the principle that our rights don’t come from some 'earthly authority' (like Congress or a king) but from God. Read the plain words of the Declaration: ‘We are endowed by our CREATOR with certain inalienable rights.’ The historical illiteracy of her comments is stunning," Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen added.
"Imagine going on TV and being this ignorant while having this level of self assurance," New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz reacted. "Liberal privilege, man. We hold these truths to be self-evident but only if Congress and the Supreme Court agree!"
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"Has @HeidiReports read the Declaration of Independence?" Daily Caller deputy editor Ailan Evans asked.
But Przybyla remained defiant on Friday.
"That is NOT what I said & you know it. Why don't you play the full clip?" Przybyla reacted to Miller's viral post of her comments. "I said men are making their own policy interpretation of natural law. MLK did so w social justice. You're welcome to as well but you don't speak for all Christians & certainly not for God."
She later added, "While there are different wings of Christian Nationalism, they are bound by their belief that our rights come from God. If you are Hindu, Jewish etc, this might help you understand the next part of my point, which is they are using this for a man-made policy agenda… which distinguishes this from other Christians who leave these God-given rights at our inherent right to ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ -- vs banning abortion, contraception etc."
In response to Fox News Digital's request for comment, Przybyla pointed to the full clip of her remarks and did not comment further. Politico did not immediately respond for comment.
Earlier in the week, Przybyla co-authored a report claiming that top allies of former President Trump are ready to "infuse" Christian nationalism into a second administration if he's elected, spearheaded by his former White House budget director and current president of the conservative think tank Center for Renewing America Russell Vought.
