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Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham, says that President Barack Obama's re-election is just further evidence that "we've turned our back on God."

In an interview that aired Friday on the ABC Family Channel, CBN's David Brody asked Franklin Graham where the country is going now that a president who approves of same sex marriage will be in office four more years.

Graham explained that the "secularization of America wasn't going to stop" even if Obama had been defeated, but it could have been slowed down.

"That's why we need to get out and vote, and vote for candidates who support moral values," he insisted. "We need someone like a Jerry Falwell to come back and resurrect the Moral Majority movement where you get people that have a moral background who are willing to come together and vote for moral issues that are important to this nation."

"If that would take place, we would see a great change in this country, but our country is in trouble. It’s in trouble spiritually. We’ve turned our back on God."

Franklin Graham also suggested that Mitt Romney lost the election because the "vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls."

But a national post-election survey published by the Faith and Freedom Coalition found that a record 27 percent of the electorate in 2012 were evangelical voters. And about 78 percent of white evangelicals cast their ballots for Romney.

"Evangelicals turned out in record numbers and voted as heavily for Mitt Romney yesterday as they did for George W. Bush in 2004," Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed said in a statement last week. "That is an astonishing outcome that few would have predicted even a few months ago. But Romney underperformed with younger voters and minorities and that in the end made the difference for Obama."

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Chris Matthews didn't pull any punches with his "Let Me Finish" segment this Monday evening where he took Mitt Romney to task for who he's pandering to: Matthews: Romney is ‘a speaker system,’ not a candidate:

Let me finish tonight with this Romney character.

I don't think Romney cares all that much about the presidency except that he wants it. If he weren't running, do you think this guy would be watching this or any other show on politics? Forget about it!

Mitt cares about three things: his faith, his family, his business.

Right now, his business is running for president. That's why he's interested in the presidency. It's his business to be interested. Listen to him answer questions. If the interviewer doesn't ask the most obvious thing, something that Mitt's briefers have been over and over with him, he seems stunned. He doesn't have an answer. Why? Because he never thought of that one!

Fact is, he hasn't thought about many things outside his zone of interest, which again includes his faith, his family, his business. And this is the most dangerous thing about this guy. Since he doesn't have a foreign policy, he buys the foreign policies of the powers that be.

So he sings the song of his neo-con so-called "advisers." What they really are, of course, are people who advocate a point of view — the need for a new war with each new Republican president — and they need someone in the White House to push it for them. They need a president who speaks their language. So they write his speeches. They want war with Iran. They just put it in the next speech.

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About the only thing more ridiculous than the decision by the producers on Morning Joe to bring on Franklin Graham to throw flames on whether President Obama is a Christian or not, or whether he's supposedly "more concerned about Muslims than Christians that are being murdered in Muslim countries" was this bit of concern trolling for Graham by the panel on Fox News Watch, where host Jon Scott asked if Graham was "ambushed."

He wasn't "ambushed" or forced to participate in any flame throwing during that segment any more than he was when CNN had him back on again for more of the Obama is a secret Muslim ridiculousness. What's really pathetic here is the panel in the Fox segment tried to claim Graham's agenda and he wanted to talk about got sidelined by questioning him on whether he thought he was a Christian or not, when what they claim he came on there to discuss was raising the exact same sort of drummed up concerns, which is that he supposedly more concerned about Muslims and making them angry than he is Christians being murdered in Muslim countries.

Apparently they're really upset that one line of calling President Obama a secret Muslim that's not really a Christian got highjacked by the crowd over at MSNBC and didn't allow him to make another attack on pretty much the exact same issue. And just ignore the fact that Graham got ample opportunity to discuss exactly what they claim he did not during that same interview.

Anyone watching this debacle with Graham every time he shows up on television knows what his game is about, which is painting the President as "the other" who is not really one of us, and somehow foreign, and playing to the birther nonsense that Graham has already made himself notorious for.

It's a really sad state of events when you've got one network slamming a really horrible interview where the producers should have known better than to bring Graham on in the first place because they knew what they were going to get and being upset because it wasn't more horrible yet and trying to pretend Graham's agenda got highjacked somehow. It wasn't. MSNBC should be ashamed for putting this birther who's just out to line his pocket and push a right wing agenda on the air and so should Fox for carrying water for him.

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Lawrence O'Donnell didn't give Birther and recent Donald Trump fan Franklin Graham the kind of pass he got from Christiane Amanpour on This Week, but man, was this interview painful to watch. O'Donnell laid Graham's hypocrisy bare when it came to pretending that he didn't know full well that our President is a Christian, but he let him off the hook for the Birther nonsense, just like Amanpour did.

O'Donnell had an opportunity to really go after Graham when he gave his blathering answer as to whether he'd actually given up everything when he supposedly devoted his life to Christ, but he just allowed Graham to ramble on and make a fool of himself instead of a doing a little follow-up.

I don't know how much money the Grahams take in every year, but I imagine they're doing pretty well if they could afford to be flying Sarah Palin around on private jets awhile back.

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"Social media could have a big part" in the Second Coming of Christ, evangelist Franklin Graham said in an interview that aired Sunday.

"I believe there's no question, I believe we're in the latter days of this age," Graham told ABC's Christiane Amanpour. "When I say latter days, could it be the last 100 years or the last 1,000 years or the last 6 months, I don't know, but the Bible, the things that the Bible predicts, earthquakes and famines, nation rising against nation, we see this happening with more frequency."

"So what will the Second Coming look like?" Amanpour wondered.

"Well, the bible says that every eye is going to see it. And, you know, I thought how is that going to happen? There's so many phones today. And just look at what's happening in Libya or Egypt and everybody has got their phone up, and everybody is taking recordings and posting it on YouTube and whatever and sending it to you or -- and they get shown around the world. I don't know but he said they'll be coming on the clouds and the world is going to moan. They're going to groan," Graham explained.

"I don't mean to be disrespectful but could there be a second coming by social media? Is that what you mean?" the ABC host asked.

"No, I'm just saying the whole world will see him when he comes, and he's coming back for his people. How is the whole world going to see him all at one time? I don't know unless all of a sudden everybody is taking pictures and it's on the media worldwide. Social media could have a big part in that," Graham replied.

The Southern Baptist evangelist faulted the antichrist in secular government for religion's diminished participation in the social safety net.

"I look at the world in which we live today and the secularism is antichrist. It's every bit antichrist. We can't talk about Jesus in our schools. God has been kicked out of our government," he opined.

"A hundred years ago the safety net, the social safety net in the country was provided by the church. If you didn't have a job, you'd go to your local church and ask the pastor if he knew somebody that could hire him. If you were hungry, you went to the local church and told them, I can't feed my family, and the church would help you. That's not being done. The government took that and took -- and took it away from the church and they had more money to give and more programs to give and pretty soon the church has just backed off and as a result, now you have generation after generation of pastors and churches that have not done that.

Graham also said that he understood why "birthers" might doubt that President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen.

"Well, the president, I know has some issues to deal with here. He can solve this whole birth certificate issue pretty quickly. I don't -- I was born in a hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, and I know that my records are there. You can probably even go and find out what room my mother was in when I was born. I don't know why he can't produce that. So I'm not -- I don't know but it's an issue that looks like he could answer pretty quickly."

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Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Bill Graham, told ABC's Christiane Amanpour that he could see himself supporting Donald Trump for president.

"Donald Trump, when I first saw that he was getting in, I thought, well, this has got to be a joke," Graham explained. "But the more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, you know, maybe this guy's right."

"So, he might be your candidate of choice?" Amanpour asked.

"Sure, yes," Graham replied.

Trump has gotten a lot of attention in recent days for suggesting that President Barack Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen.

Amanpour's full interview with Graham is set to air Sunday.

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Given the fact that many Republicans over the weekend when asked about why so many people in their party believe that our president is a Muslim were feigning ignorance on what's actually going on with who and why these rumors about President Obama started, I thought Touré's rant from this past Friday's Dylan Ratigan show was worth going back for and sharing.

Anyone paying attention to the "summer of racial resentment" from Fox and the GOP already knew this, but it was nice to hear someone say it out loud on national television. The GOP's plan is to drum up racial resentment in order to gain seats in the upcoming mid-term elections.

The misinformation is coming from right wing web sites, email chains, right wing radio and sadly from our "mainstream" media outlets as well.

Touré did a great job of calling out the Dr. Lauras and the Newt Gingrichs and the Franklin Grahams of the world in this segment.

They all were more than aware of the dog-whistles they were setting off to the Republican right wing base and he lays out very clearly just what they'd like to be calling President Obama when they call him a Muslim, but can't do in polite company. I grew up dealing with a father who was and sadly still is racist as hell but doesn't think he is and the cognitive dissonance with some of his opinions and trying to digest them is always something that makes my stomach churn.

I listened to him for years blather on about the lazy blacks he worked with when apparently they never had a lazy white worker as well that they couldn't get rid of, the terrible black drivers he'd encounter on his way to work while I'm sure there was never a bad white driver on the road anywhere around him. He, like Stephen Colbert did have at least one or two black friends, so how could he be a racist? And he was very sad when Lou Dobbs went off the air.

He used to send me some of his right wing emails that his buddies sent him until I did a few replies to all and debunked the hateful junk he was sending me, and that put a stop to those mass emails coming my way. Imagine that.

I know all to well just who the right wing is trying to appeal to with their "Obama is a secret Muslim" bull pucky and Touré is spot on with his commentary. I've had the unfortunate circumstance of knowing who it plays to and what they are willing to say out loud when they think it doesn't matter who hears them first hand.

I'm sure I'm not alone with this experience. I'd love to hear back from others who have had to deal with people they love just being so wrong headed with their prejudices as well.

In the mean time, here's Touré's rant, and rough transcript below the fold.

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On this week's Meet the Press, Mitch McConnell pretends like he doesn't know where the rumors about President Obama's religion are coming from when asked by David Gregory why one third of Republicans believe that he's a Muslim. Sure you don't Mitch. Just for good measure he throws in the same tactic flame thrower Franklin Graham used on CNN last week and instead of saying that he knows full well what religion President Obama practices does a little wink and a nod to his wingnut base and says he'll "take him at his word" that he's a Christian. Nice. Way to pander to the lizard brains out there McConnell.

MR. GREGORY: Let me move on to something that seems to be related to this and has gotten a lot of attention this week, and this is the poll about the president's own faith from the Pew Research Center. Eighteen percent of those polled believe that the president is a Muslim. Among Republicans, this is striking, 31 percent believe he's a Muslim. Of course, he's not. Why do you think these views prevail?

SEN. McCONNELL: Well, look, I think the faith that most Americans are questioning is the president's faith in the government to generate jobs. We've had an 18-month effort here on the part of this administration to prime the pump, borrow money, spend money hiring new federal government employees, sending money down to states so they don't have to lay off state employees. People are looking around and saying, "Where's the job?"

MR. GREGORY: Right.

SEN. McCONNELL: The president's faith in the government to stimulate the economy is what people are questioning.

MR. GREGORY: That, that, that's certainly a side step to, to this particular question. Again...

SEN. McCONNELL: Well, no, I--the--I--the president...

MR. GREGORY: ...as a leader of the country, sir, as one of the most powerful Republicans in the country, do you think you have an obligation to say to 34 percent of Republicans in the country--rather, 31 percent who believe the president of the United States is a Muslim? That's misinformation.

SEN. McCONNELL: The president says he's a--the president says he's a Christian, I take him at his word. I don't think that's in dispute.

MR. GREGORY: And do you think--how, how do you think it comes to be that this kind of misinformation gets spread around and prevails?

SEN. McCONNELL: I have no idea, but I take the president at his word.

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From Countdown:

In response to Franklin Graham's uncertainty, a special Countdown investigation reveals not only the proof of the president's true religion, but the long-term plan to conceal that truth, a plan first put in motion when he was just 2 years old.

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We've got an economy that's a mess, people who have been unemployed forever that need jobs, massive flooding in Pakistan, millions of gallons of oil and dispersants still floating in the water in the Gulf of Mexico and what is the media spending hours upon hours covering? That ginned up non-controversy over the Islamic center near ground zero and now a new poll that shows about one in five Americans think that President Obama is a Muslim. I wonder where they got that idea?

I hate that they're spending this much time on this nonsense that most people don't care about but if they're going to do it, we need to be pushing back against the lies and point out who's helping to spread them and hold the corporate media accountable when they help to push the latest right wing meme of the day and give it legitimacy.

During John King's show on CNN, Paul Begala says it's not CNN that is attributing to those poll numbers.

BEGALA: Mostly, no. You're right to just observe that as contrasted with Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter for that matter or certainly George W. Bush, this Christian president talks about his Christianity less. That perhaps makes him more like say George Bush's father, a devout Christian, a fine man who just didn't like to wear it on his sleeve as much as maybe some others.

No, in that survey, the Pew poll, most, the vast majority of people who think he's a Muslim. When you ask them why do you think that they say because of the media. And not to put too fine a point on it, they don't mean CNN, John. They mean the kook right wing media that has been attacking this president. It's fine to attack him on issues. But they're trying to attack him with any kind of crazy conspiracy theory they can.

I'd beg to differ.

A little later in the show John King brings on evangelical leader Franklin Graham who suggests that the "confusion" is being caused because President Obama was "born a Muslim" and of course if he says he's a Christian now (wink... wink) we'll just have to take him at his word that he is (but he might really be a dirty Kenyan Muslim usurper... you never know).

There are plenty of places where these rumors are being spread such as email chains, on right wing talk radio and on Fox News, but interviews like this aren't helping matters any. We got zero push back from John King against Graham's nonsense. He's really good at the false equivalency "you decide" game where he lets his viewers figure out for themselves who's telling the truth and who's spouting nonsense that should have been stopped in their tracks for telling lies but wasn't. Heaven forbid that might not make for a polite interview and we couldn't have that sort of incivility now could we?

Does anyone think John King didn't know exactly what he was going to get from Franklin Graham before he came on the air? Here's some of what happened during his encounter with then presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama back in 2008.

Franklin Graham to Obama: Are You A Muslim? (And How Obama Courted Hagee's Publisher):

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