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Adam Kinzinger: Karoline Leavitt was speaking in Christian nationalist code [1]
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Date: 2025-09-01
By now, most of you have probably heard about how White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took a swipe at her predecessor, Jen Psaki, for saying she’d had it with the usual “thoughts and prayers”—er, “tots and pears”—response Republicans give about mass shootings in the wake of this weekend’s bloodbath in Minneapolis. But former congressman and leading never-Trumper Adam Kinzinger heard something else in Leavitt’s speech—something that suggests Leavitt’s boss sees another opportunity to service the massive debt he owes the religious right.
When another horrific mass shooting occurred days ago, it first seemed the reaction would follow the usual path, with one side arguing for stricter gun laws and the other insisting that the rights enumerated in the Second Amendment allow for no limits on who can own what kind of firearm. Then came a fresh argument, at least where government officials are concerned. Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said: “There is a demonic force moving when a transgender maniac sprays bullets at pews of Catholic school children. Shame on the progressive leaders and lawmakers who make this about the man in the White House, the second amendment or so-called trans bigotry.”
To Kinzinger’s mind, Leavitt was speaking in code—one that right-wing white evangelicals would readily understand. Most white evangelicals who have MAGA hats glued to their heads live in an “echo chamber” where “evil spirits” cause tragedies. In that same echo chamber, if you’re trans, you’re a demon yourself.
In the aftermath of the shooting, a significant element of the right has been harping on the shooter, Robin Westman, being in the process of transitioning from male to female. They believe Westman is but the latest in a trend of trans mass shooters.
On social media and on conservative websites, people are using a new term -- “transterrorism” -- as they blame Westman’s gender identity issue for the violence. To them, the obvious mental illness, obsessions with violence, and the fact that she bought the guns illegally are meaningless details. Instead, they say the dead and wounded are victims of Westman’s ungodly condition. “If they are willing to destroy themselves and how God made them,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, “then they are willing to destroy others, and we saw that happen today." Others on the far right of Christian politics talked of an “epidemic” of shootings by transgender people, even though the data doesn’t fit their claims.
Much of this element sees itself as invested in spiritual warfare against “nonbelievers” and “the forces of Satan.” Among those warriors are budget chief and Project 2025 author Russell Voight, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, de facto faith czar Paula White, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They see the LGBT community as “convenient enemies” who “prey against children.”
Kinzinger knows what he’s talking about. He grew up in this world. You may remember that after he voted to impeach Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection, several members of his own family sent him a handwritten letter calling him out for doing so. Read it here or here. While most of us saw Kinzinger upholding his oath both as a congressman and an Air National Guardsman to defend the Constitution against “all enemies, foreign and domestic,” his family saw someone who joined “the devil’s army” and was “a disappointment to us and to God.” In other words, the kind of people who lapped up Leavitt’s message.
When I saw this crawl across my Substack feed, I was reminded of a moment earlier this year where White House comms adviser Margo Martin posted a video of Leavitt praying before a press briefing.
Most non-MAGA folk saw this as pure performance. But Trumpvangelicals saw Leavitt as one of them. That statement on the horror in Minneapolis put that beyond all doubt.
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