The first hint of things to come came two weeks ago, when State Department encouraged employees to report — even anonymously — allegations of anti-Christian bias within the agency. The Department of Veterans Affairs took a nearly identical step soon after.
Evidently, these weren’t just random memos. The Washington Post reported:
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday convened the first meeting of a task force President Donald Trump has charged with searching for and eradicating what he’s described as “anti-Christian bias” within federal agencies and regulatory practices. Joined by other Cabinet officials, Bondi kicked off the session by attacking the administration of former president Joe Biden, who she said had “abused and targeted Christians.”
So, a few things.
First, the idea that Biden — a devout and lifelong church-going Roman Catholic — “abused and targeted Christians” is absurd and beneath the office of the attorney general. Indeed, congressional Republicans spent much of the former president’s term raising similar allegations, but an inspector general’s report found no evidence to support the claims.
If Bondi has new evidence to support her partisan attacks, she’s kept it to herself.
Second, it’s hard not to notice the faith-specific drive of this new administrative task force. The attorney general and her colleagues aren’t focused on “anti-religion bias” within the government; they’re focused only on “anti-Christian bias” within the government.
The Post’s report noted, “[E]ven before the group’s inaugural meeting, critics have assailed its mission as a bald attempt by government to elevate one faith over others and to rewrite recent history under the guise of protecting religious freedoms.” Given the circumstances, it’s not hard to conclude that these critics have a point. But I was also struck by just how many Cabinet secretaries and prominent federal officials have joined this endeavor. While the increasingly hyper–partisan attorney general is serving as the task force’s chair, she’s serving alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez DeRemer, and FBI Director Kash Patel. Also on hand for the inaugural meeting of this group was Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkende, White House Domestic Policy Council Vince Haley, and a variety of leading officials from the Justice Department, FEMA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Office of Management and Budget. Given the inconvenient fact that the task force is focused on a problem that doesn’t appear to exist, that was quite a turnout.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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