CNN host Chris Cuomo accused Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk of conflating protests for social justice with citizens not being able to attend church services during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I feel badly for him that he believes that that’s the world he lives in, that he’s being kept from going to church,” Cuomo said after watching Kirk’s Republican National Convention speech.
“The American way of life means you speak your mind without retribution, without being kicked off social media by a self-righteous censor in Silicon Valley. It means you can freely practice your religion and that church is more essential than a casino,” Kirk said. “It means that we judge people on their actions, not on their immutable characteristics. The American way of life is being dismantled by — dismantled by a group of deceitful, bitter, vengeful activists who have never built anything in their lives.”
Cuomo accused Kirk of ignoring the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to go to church. I miss going to church. I understand there’s a pandemic. You know who else does? My priest understands it,” Cuomo said. “Oh, but you can protest. One has nothing to do with the other. You are dealing with people who are responding in this country to outrageous acts of social injustice. To say, ‘Well, it’s the same as going to church,’ no, it isn’t. If you told people they couldn’t protest, if you invoked martial law about these types of situations, you would have chaos.”
Several conservatives in Congress and in the media have accused left-leaning activists of adhering to a double standard when it comes to protesting and reopening of the American economy following the pandemic.
“Democrats won’t let you go to church, but they’ll let you protest,” Rep. Jim Jordan said. “Democrats won’t let you go to work, but they’ll let you riot. And Democrats won’t let you go to school, but they’ll let you go loot. President Trump has taken on each of their crazy ideas.”
