Catholics call for Clinton to fire staffers over disparaging emails

WASHINGTON – After WikiLeaks revealed emails from Hillary Clinton aides bashing conservative Catholics, a group of Donald Trump supporters expressed outrage at the comments on Wednesday and called on the Democratic presidential nominee to fire the staffers.

“For 30 years, Hillary Clinton has been openly hostile to issues that are important to Catholics,” Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a national conference call, citing federal funding for abortion as one example. “Everyone involved should be ashamed.”

Conway, who introduced the other speakers, demanded that Clinton fire the staff responsible for the “assault on Catholics.”

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, former director of specialty media for former President George W. Bush, also said Clinton should fire the responsible staff members.

“Hillary likes to say she ‘goes high’ but she and her campaign are as low as a snake’s belly,” Matt Schlapp said.

Mercedes Schlapp said “the comments are incredibly offensive.”

Former Ambassador Jim Nicholson said the emails left him gasping. “I was greatly offended and disappointed when I read these comments made by senior members of Hillary Clinton’s staff.”

He said Clinton “absolutely ought to apologize. No religion should suffer this kind of denigration.”

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said, “This attack is not limited to just Catholics.” He implored on the public to “call on your bishops, call on your faith-based leaders” to condemn the remarks.

Newt Gingrich, along with his wife, Calista, also condemned the remarks. “Calista and I both feel this is an assault on Catholics.” He referred to Clinton’s “bigoted, anti-Christian, anti-Catholic staff.”

Calista Gingrich said she found the emails “extremely offensive.”

Emails were from 2011

The 2011 emails were exchanged between John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank with close ties to the Clinton campaign and the White House, and Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s campaign’s communications director, who at the time worked at the Center for American Progress. The emails also were sent to John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, but WikiLeaks did not publish any responses from him and it is unknown if any exist. Podesta is Catholic.

Halpin noted that 21st Century Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp Chairman Robert Thomson were raising their children Catholic.

“Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) from the SC and think tanks to the media and social groups,” Halpin wrote. “It’s an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.”

Palmieri, who worked at the Center for American Progress at the time, responded that Catholicism “is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”

Palmieri told reporters Wednesday that she “did not recognize the hacked emails.”

A statement released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress did not authenticate the email exchange, but said Halpin “has spent his career advocating and fighting for the common good and improving the lives of all Americans as a key tenant of his Catholic faith.”

Clinton has 55 percent of the Catholic voter support, compared to 34 percent for Trump, according to the latest Atlantic poll.