Ross Douthat says Trump's Christian Nationalism just needs more Christian in it
Opening Arguments
Opening Arguments Media LLC
4.3 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 75 minutes
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Summary
VR16 - This week on Vapid Response: it’s the Hat and the Hammer, with the return of both New York Times token religious conservative columnist Ross Doot-hat and Newsweek editor-at-large Josh Hammer. We begin with a savory amuse douche in which a Christian influencer preaches against making policy based on “toxic empathy” before reading Josh Hammer taking her up on the joke by explaining why the U.S. military has the absolute right to kill anyone Josh Hammer wants dead. Finally, Ross Douthat stops in from whatever planet he has been living on with some advice for the Trump administration on how to be better Christians.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to opening arguments. |
| 0:12.3 | This is VAPID Response Wednesday. |
| 0:14.7 | I'm Thomas. |
| 0:15.6 | That over there is real life attorney, Matt Cameron, immigration attorney. |
| 0:19.4 | How are you doing? |
| 0:20.3 | Hey, all right, Thomas, just having a |
| 0:22.7 | December kind of a day. Just got no heat in the office, so I'm enjoying nice, cold 13 degrees of |
| 0:28.4 | whatever it is out there. Beautiful day in Boston. Wow. Another slow day in a slow work, |
| 0:36.1 | industry of immigration law, I'm sure. |
| 0:39.0 | What do you do to pass the time, Matt? |
| 0:41.1 | Just watching the clock, man. |
| 0:43.6 | Wait until you can punch out. |
| 0:46.3 | How's it going, Lydia? |
| 0:48.1 | Oh, good. I'm sitting in my |
| 0:50.3 | heat working |
| 0:52.2 | location in a balmy 43 degrees, 45 degrees in California. |
| 0:59.7 | Yeah, we have actual, what you would almost register as cold here. |
| 1:01.8 | I will say, it is a little chilly when I go outside and I have to pick up the kids. |
| 1:07.9 | It's like, it's shocking. |
| 1:09.7 | There's a chill in the air. Yeah, this is my favorite. I wish it was 50 degrees all the time. It's like, it's shocking. There's a chill in the air. |
| 1:11.0 | Yeah, this is my favorite. |
| 1:12.3 | I wish it was 50 degrees all the time. Yeah. That's what I want. I want 50 degrees. And everyone's like, no, wouldn't you want like 70? It's like, no, because if I start walking, then I'm hot. I want it to be cold. Like the default should be a little cold. and then when I start moving, then I'll be perfect. |
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