Radio host won’t apologize for doubting election was legit

FPI / February 17, 2021

Radio host and Trump supporter Eric Metaxas noted in a recent interview that he doesn't believe Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president.

"There will always be an asterisk next to him for me until — if — things are clarified," Metaxas, who has been dubbed “America’s #1 Bad Christian”, said in the Feb. 14 interview published in The Atlantic.

Metaxas said he believes "it is very possible" that Donald Trump was re-elected "and that sickens me, that I could even think that. I’ve seen enough to make me doubt that we had a fair election, that every person’s vote was counted the way it’s supposed to be counted."

Metaxas added: "I think a lot of people thought it was too much trouble to get into these weeds — 'Let’s just let it ride and leave it alone.' And a lot of courts didn’t look at the evidence, because they made a call, which was actually a political call, to say, 'We just don’t want to stick our necks out on this.' "

Though he wasn't in Washington, D.C. during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Metaxas said he "was blown away at how instantly anybody who supported Trump — which is, you know, half the country — was demonized as potential white domestic terrorists. I just thought, Holy cow. What am I, in Nazi Germany? This is really sick. That’s not what we do in America."

Metaxas said that "this event happens, and before the smoke clears, we are using the opportunity — and I’m not talking about the Biden administration; I’m talking about the Democratic establishment and the media — instantly seizing on it to demonize, in the harshest terms, anyone who would support Trump. That just blew my mind. I thought: You don’t do that in America. That’s what the Nazis did with the Reichstag fire. Before the smoke cleared, they had already figured out who they were going to blame."

Emma Green, The Atlantic's interviewer, then chimed in: "I just want to be clear about the metaphor here, because I think it matters. The attack on the Capitol was perpetrated by a group of people who had, in some cases, weapons, and who forcefully broke into the United States Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes. I don’t think the argument is that anybody who voted for Trump anywhere in America is a violent white supremacist. I think the criticism has been about that act and the way in which President Trump, along with those who have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election results, encouraged that act."

[Note: There are no reports from any authorities of any weapons being used by or recovered from anyone who breached the Capitol. The only use of a weapon reported by authorities was the shot fired by the Capitol Police officer which killed Ashli Babbitt.]

Metaxas responded by saying "it’s our right in America to do that — to question things. And when you are told that by doing that, you are contributing to violence, you are inciting violence — that, right there, is a red flag. The media landscape was not what you just described. It was an absolute pile-on. You’d think somebody had clubbed a senator to death or something. I was just scratching my head, trying to make sense of whatever happened, if we even know what happened. There are enough questions that it’s so confusing. They were acting like people were shot.

Green then said: "Some people have argued that the reputation of Christianity has been damaged by evangelicals’ wide support of President Trump. I take it you don’t agree with that."

Metaxas responded: "I think that’s preposterous! Of course not. That’s just such a silly thing. The idea that I’m supposed to bury all of my thoughts for the hope of perhaps persuading somebody in the future that Christianity is palatable or something — Christians have traditionally stood up for human rights! When you stand up against the slave trade, you become incredibly politically unpopular. I mean, Wilberforce was totally demonized in his day. But he was doing what he felt was the right thing. What kind of a Christian would he have been if he said, 'Well, I don’t want to be divisive'?"

Free Press International