TPMDC

Angle: I Was Speaking Christian Audience’s Language On ‘First Commandment’ Line

NV Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R)

Sharron Angle has given an interesting explanation to the mainstream media about one of the controversial statements she made to conservative media: That she was tailoring her language to that audience. And in offering this explanation, she apparently just dug in even further.

In an interview with ABC News, Angle was asked about her past comment that the agenda of Harry Reid and President Obama violated the First Commandment. (Not the First Amendment — the First Commandment. As in, their liberal big government is a sin because it takes people’s attention and dependence away from God.)

“I said that? No I didn’t say that,” Angle told Jonathan Karl — then possibly remembering it. “Actually, that was a discussion I was having with CBN. We were talking in very Christian terms. That’s what Christian broadcast is — that’s their focus — so you speak the language of the folks that you’re communicating with. And I was speaking in their language. And the language that I used was that in our country, we have become a country that has put our faith, not ‘in God we trust,’ which is on our money — as you know.

“Not ‘in God we trust,’ but in government we trust, and that is what I was referring to — that we have allowed government in many ways to take the place of God,” Angle said.

In fact, Angle made the comment back in April, during the Republican primary, and it came to light in August — and it was not on CBN, either. She actually made the comment with an outlet called TruNews Christian Radio, with host Rick Wiles.

“And these programs that you mentioned — that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward — are all entitlement programs built to make government our God,” Angle said at the time. “And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”

2010 elections, Harry Reid, NV-SEN, Senate '10, Sharron Angle
Eric Kleefeld

Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Sara Libby

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Eric Lach

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

Front Page Editor

David Taintor

Poll Editor

Kyle Leighton

News Writer

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Polling Fellow

Tom Kludt

Video Fellow

Clayton Ashley

Publishing Fellow

Christopher O’Driscoll

Research Interns

Michael Brooks

Publishing Intern

Miles Read

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Mary Cadwallader

Bob Edmunds

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak

Tech Fellow

Dennis Cahillane