Trump's Claim of "Anti-Christian Bias" Is as Absurd as It Is Untrue

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On Thursday, Trump signed the executive order on “eradicating anti-Christian bias."

The sole example of so-called “anti-Christian bias” Trump cited at the National Prayer Breakfast was the case of Paulette Harlow, one of the nearly two dozen people he pardoned two weeks ago for blocking the entrances to abortion clinics (some of the more serious violations included breaking into the clinics and stealing fetal tissue). Harlow, a 70-something Massachusetts resident, was sentenced to two years in prison last May for being part of a group that broke into a DC abortion clinic in October 2020 and livestreamed their blockading of the entrance; she was found guilty following a bench trial of federal civil rights conspiracy and violating the FACE Act, a federal law that prevents interfering with access to reproductive health clinics, according to Biden’s Department of Justice. (Trump’s DOJ has said they will limit enforcement of the law, which has abortion clinics bracing for potentially violent protests.)

But in Trump’s rewriting of history on Thursday, he falsely claimed that Harlow “was put in jail because she was praying”—which even Harlow’s former attorney has said is not accurate. In fact, according to court documents, Harlow was not a peaceful protester, but instead body-slammed the clinic manager into a waiting room chair. Once law enforcement arrived, she told them she would not cooperate with arrest and that they would have to “use a power-saw to cut the bike lock she affixed to her neck” to attach herself to other protesters as part of the blockade, the court documents state. Harlow denied the allegations against her at trial, despite video evidence proving otherwise. (Allen Orenberg, the lawyer who previously told Reuters that Harlow was not, in fact, jailed for praying, said when reached by email on Thursday that he is no longer representing Harlow and directed questions to her current lawyer, Carmen Hernandez, who said Harlow did not actually serve any prison time due to delays stemming from health issues, and that she was scheduled to report to prison later this month. Hernandez also pointed to a court record that stated that Harlow “passively resisted arrest by going limp,” and then quoted comments from Martin Luther King, Jr. about “passive resistance.” She did not respond to a question about the allegation that Harlow body-slammed the clinic manager.)

Read more about Trump's National Prayer Breakfast speech here

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