All eyes are on Alabama as the state tallies up the votes in its special Senate election between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican (and accused child molester) Roy Moore. With that, CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Ted Crockett, Moore’s campaign manager on Tuesday evening — and as you might expect, things got very cringe-worthy very fast.
Among the many controversial statements Moore made prior to running for Congress, one was that the now-candidate believes that Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to be members of Congress — when Tapper confronted Crockett about this statement, he quickly defended Moore.
“Because you have to swear on a Bible,” Crockett says, when asked for clarification on Moore’s statement. “I had to do it, and I’m an elected official three times. You have to swear on a Bible to be an elected official in the United States. He alleges that a Muslim cannot do that ethically.” Say what?
Moore’s campaign spokesman says Muslims can’t serve in Congress because they’d have to be sworn in on the Bible.
CNN’s @jaketapper points out there is no law that requires elected officials to be sworn in using a Christian Bible https://t.co/mxHWKbshaC
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 12, 2017
And then came what might be the best moment in all of CNN’s history when Jake Tapper completely shut down Crockett by reminding him that, yes, members of Congress can, in fact, swear on a religious text of their choosing when being sworn into Congress.
“The law is not that you have to swear on a Christian Bible. That is not the law,” Tapper says prompting an awkward, seven-second-long blank stare silence on Crockett’s end — and, just, LOL.
As the Huffington Post points out, Article VI, clause three of the Constitution blatantly says that, while all Senators and Representatives are required to take an oath, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim member of the House of Representatives, was sworn in with his hand placed on a Quaran that was once owned by Thomas Jefferson — and some lawmakers have even chosen to forgo religion altogether in favor of placing their hands on the Constitution instead of a religious text.
Meanwhile, I’ll just be over here watching the clip on endless loop for the rest of the night and hoping that Alabama voters make the right choice — because TBH, the only way this would be funnier is if these people weren’t on the verge of possibly running the country.