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Christianity Today editor-in-chief Mark Galli defended his call to remove President Trump from office on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday, explaining that he's not making a "political judgment," but rather a "moral" one.
"I'm not really making a political judgment about him, because that's not our expertise at Christianity Today. I am making a moral judgment that he's morally unfit, or even more precisely, it's his public morality that makes him unfit. Anybody in leadership has — none of us are perfect. We're not looking for saints. ... But a president has certain responsibilities as a public figure to display a certain level of public character and public morality."— Mark Galli
The big picture: Galli wrote in an editorial in Christianity Today, a prominent evangelical magazine founded by Billy Graham, that Trump should be removed from office in the wake of his impeachment, arguing: "To use an old cliché, it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence."
- The editorial prompted outrage from Trump, who condemned Christianity Today as a "far-left magazine," as well a statement from Franklin Graham claiming that his father would have disagreed with Galli's position.
- In his CBS interview, Galli acknowledged that Trump has done a lot for the white evangelical community and still maintains strong support, but added that he doesn't believe they can "in good conscience" continue the "trade-off" of accepting Trump because he backs pro-life and religious freedom policies.
- "He gives us what we need on pro-life, but he's got this bad character. The fundamental argument I'm making is: We crossed a line somewhere in the impeachment hearings, at least in my mind — that balance no longer works," Galli said.
Go deeper: Ex-pastor Josh Harris says evangelical support for Trump is "incredibly damaging to the Gospel"