Former President Donald Trump is claiming an influential charity whose members are barred from making political endorsements is warning Catholics away from "Crazy Kamala Harris."
Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday that the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus was launching a large political campaign against his presumed opponent in the 2024 presidential election.
"A large group of Catholics is launching a major Political Campaign against Crazy Kamala Harris," Trump wrote. "Catholics are literally being persecuted by this Wack Job, just ask the Knights of Columbus."
It is unknown what Trump was basing his claim about a campaign by the group on, but his accusations of persecution was likely referencing a 2018 exchange between Harris and the then-president Trump's nominee for a Nebraska federal court judgeship, Brian Buescher, whose Knights of Columbus membership Harris reportedly questioned.
"Then-Sen. Harris asked him whether he knew that 'the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when [he] joined the organization,'" Catholic News Agency reports, "and whether he was aware 'that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when [he] joined the organization.”
On Wednesday, Trump claimed Knights of Columbus was fearful of her ascent to the Oval Office.
"They say that she is the most Anti-Catholic person ever to run for high office in the U.S," Trump wrote. "This respected group wants ALL CATHOLICS TO VOTE AGAINST KAMALA, and they are 100% correct."
Raw Story reached out to the Knights of Columbus via email and telephone but did not receive an immediate response.
A Knights of Columbus document on political activity guidelines instructs members not to endorse candidates or engage in partisan activity in the name of the organization.
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Trump's comments echo those he made at a Turning Point USA event Friday during which he invoked panic of Democratic persecution of Catholics.
Harris' campaign responded with a swift rebuttal, accusing Trump of insulting the faith of Catholic Americans.
"He generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant," said spokesperson James Singer, "let alone be President of the United States."
Raw Story reached out to Singer on X for comment on Wednesday but did not receive an immediate reply.
Trump's own actions have outraged Catholic voters who decried his decision to sell Bibles and his administration's policies on immigration and the death penalty.
