CNN‘s Chris Cuomo called out Florida Republican Matt Gaetz for incorrectly using the term “Immaculate Conception” during a heated on-air interview.
CNN host Chris Cuomo called out Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for using the term “Immaculate Conception” without knowing what the term actually meant.
As CNN reported: “Gaetz has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the idea that there is some sort of ‘Deep State’ conspiracy within the government — and the FBI, in particular — aimed at undermining Trump. Of late, he’s seized on the fact that the FBI cannot find five months of text messages — including those of two officials who expressed anti-Trump sentiment — as evidence of this conspiracy. “
Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Gaetz made the following odd remark citing the “immaculate conception” regarding those missing texts:
There’s a December 13th letter from Mr. Horowitz, the inspector general of the FBI to Senator Ron Johnson saying ‘I have all the text messages through the month of June,’ and then only after that do we hear from the FBI that there’s a five month black hole in those text messages so we’ve got conflicting information. Today I’ll be sending a demand with several of my colleagues to the FBI to find out where the phones are, what system in=operability were they saying malfunctioned what was the upgrade that they say caused this snafu?”
Because, it would be the greatest coincidence since the immaculate conception that it just happened to be the case that right after Obama sics the intelligence community on Trump, the text messages go dark, and they only reappear the day that Robert Mueller is hired to investigate the president. Come on, the American people won’t believe that’s a coincidence, and I don’t believe it either.
Cuomo decided to ask Gaetz about his use of the term “immaculate conception” towards the end of a Wednesday interview discussing the missing FBI texts.
- CUOMO: What do you mean by the Immaculate Conception?
- GAETZ: Look, I was making a point that this is an absurd coincidence.
- CUOMO: By what? What do you think happened with the Immaculate Conception?
- GAETZ: The immaculate conception, it’s obviously a religious doctrine that deals with the Christian faith.
- CUOMO: I know. Where is the analogy? That’s what I don’t understand. What do you think happened with the Immaculate Conception?
- GAETZ: Look, did you really bring me on to discuss my religious views, Chris? I’m a Christian and I believe the Immaculate Conception was how Jesus was born.
- CUOMO: I’m saying you made the analogy, and I don’t understand. The Immaculate Conception is not how Jesus was born.
- GAETZ: It was the conception. That’s the nature of the Immaculate Conception.
- CUOMO: No, it wasn’t. It was Mary’s conception. It was the mother’s conception without original sin. It was not the conception of Jesus. Facts matter, congressman. If you’re going to make an analogy, at least know what you’re talking about because you’ve got to have a basis for these things. You only know what you show. You’ve got to release that memo. It’s got to have the facts and you better figure out what this ‘secret society’ is before you say there’s a shadow organization within the FBI.
- GAETZ: We intend to. We intend to, absolutely. We intend to find out what it is. That’s why the American people have been learning more and more about the intractable bias in this investigation.
- CUOMO: They need facts to back it up and when they get them, you know where you’re welcome to come on and make the case. Right here. Appreciate you taking the opportunity.
Politifact provided the following information regarding the term immaculate conception in an article fact-checking the entire Cuomo/Gaetz interview:
Immaculate Conception is commonly confused with the virgin birth of Jesus. However, according to Catholic teachings, it actually describes Mary’s conception in her mother’s womb without “the stain of original sin.” Although this idea existed for quite some time, the Immaculate Conception doctrine wasn’t established until 1854 by Pope Pius IX.
Mitchell Reddish, the chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Stetson University, said Immaculate Conception is not a universally held belief among Protestants. That might explain why Gaetz, a Baptist, said it referred to Jesus’ birth.
Still, Reddish said, the virgin birth of Jesus and Immaculate Conception are completely different.
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