REGISTER: Bette’s Happy Hour with Tom Carter - Unraveling DC's MAGA Catholic Web
Please register for our Tuesday Happy Hour at 11 am Pacific, with veteran newsman and Leonard Leo whistleblower Tom Carter, joining us live from Washington DC, as he unspins DC's MAGA Catholic web
***Bette members will find the registration link for today’s Happy Hour below the paywall. Please take out a membership and support independent investigative journalism in this time of grave deception.***
“Even in the coldest darkest winter, there will be a spring… just probably not in my lifetime.”—Tom Carter for Bette Dangerous
As I have written before, I love spending time with veteran journalists. Raconteurs are among my favorite species. So when I was in DC last year, I made sure to meet up with my pal Tom Carter for breakfast. Tom spent 25 years working as a reporter, and the theme of our meeting was “I have one more story for you…” and then we would chat for another hour.
I asked Tom to return to Bette to unpack his latest Medium post and to give us an update from DC’s No Kings. You can read his post here:
So please register for our Tuesday, Bette’s Happy Hour with Tom Carter at 11 am Pacific, March 31.
Here is an excerpt from his latest Medium:
Pope Leo has dialed it up to seven or eight in official statements, homilies and missives excoriating the trump regime on immigration, the Iran war and other Christofascist crimes against God and humanity.
It needs to go to eleven — and Pope Leo needs look at his flock.
The Vatican has failed to examine the role of the Catholic church in this Biblical level global nightmare.
Much like the pedophile priests scandal, Pope Leo, at least so far, seems content to damn the crime, but do nothing to solve it.
Show me any faith based or political lobby, business or international effort anywhere in DC politics remotely comparable in size, reach, wealth or impact to Leonard Leo’s Catholic web. DC MAGA Catholics are punching way above their weight.
Fact: trump could not have been elected in either 2016 or 2024 without Leonard Leo and his DC Catholic political web.
No trump, no Iran War, no Gestapo immigration crackdown, no ICE concentration camps, no destruction of the world’s best healthcare to make measles and polio great again.
And all with zero media scrutiny. Ignored by the national press and the “experts” on Christian Nationalism who focus on Protestant Nationalism, at the recent MAGA National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in DC, Rad-Trad MAGA Catholic publications and even the MAGA Catholic US ambassador to Rome have been crowing since trump’s reelection over the DC MAGA “Catholic moment.”
Sure, Leonard Leo had lots of help — oil billionaires, Evangelical votes, the Tech Bro Nerd Reich — but Leonard Leo’s MAGA Catholic Machine, packed with Opus Dei members and cooperators, is the linchpin. Remove the MAGA Catholics and the wheels come off. Collapses like a house of cards. A Venn Diagram would illustrate lots of overlap and common interests. It would also show Opus Dei MAGA Catholics at the center.
Is there a more effective lobby? Big oil? Big Pharma? NRA? Even Israel, that owns the US Congress and the Evangelical doomsday cult, that can suck the US into Holy Wars, doesn’t have six Supremes to grant a corrupt, child rapist felon immunity, or to crush any and all efforts in support of democracy and the US Constitution.
DC’s Evangelical lobby is formidable. Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, Museum of the Bible, The Family, the Christian Coalition, American Center for Law and Justice, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Turning Point USA, etc.
(I’m sure I missed some. But they didn’t show up in a bunch of different Google or AI searches.)
Not too shabby. But nothing like Leonard Leo’s under the radar Catholic behemoth.
Consider this. Notre Dame, Georgetown and Catholic U are ranked among the top law schools in the country. Regent and Liberty are not in the top 100. That gap between Catholic and Evangelical impact and credibility is reflected in any measure you take in the MAGA faith lobby…
…MAGA Catholics make up less 10% of the US population, less than half of US Catholics. But members of this tiny revanchist, anti Vatican II, Rad-Trad, TLM Catholic schism dominate the trump regime and a nation of 345 million.
It is no exaggeration to say we are experiencing a MAGA Catholic moment.
US Government MAGA Catholic Trump Regime
6 Leonard Leo picked, vetted and installed Supreme Court justices — 6 of 9–66.6%
JD Vance — VP
Marco Rubio — State Department
Tom Homan — Border czar/Immigration
RFK jr — Health/Vaccines
Linda McMahon — Education
Karoline Leavitt — press secretary
6 out 16 members of trump’s cabinet — 37.5% of trump’s cabinet is MAGA Catholic. If Border Czar and Press Secretary were a cabinet positions it would be 44.4%.
Leonard Leo affiliated DC Catholic NGOs — board member, funded and/or staffed
Students for Life — Leo on board 2008–2023
Ethics and Public Policy Institute — Leo and Robbie George on board, Ed Whelan (Leo stooge & flunkie)
Becket Fund Law — Leo on board
Heritage Foundation — Opus Dei Kevin Roberts, Roger Severino (formerly Becket Fund) Leo funded
Judicial Crisis Network — Carrie Severino, Ann Corkery — Leo money laundering and pr machine
EWTN Montse Alvarado, CIC board, formerly Becket Fund ex dir
Catholic Information Center — K St Opus Dei — Leo, Alvarado on board (Cippolino, Bill Barr)
CRC Advisors — founded by Leo and Greg Mueller
The Heights and Oakcrest Opus Dei boys and girls schools
Harwood Foundation — Opus Dei school fundraising initiative
Argus Insight — Lachlan Markay — anti environment
Thomist Institute — Father Dominic Legge (affiliated w K St Opus Dei, Napa and converted JD) Father Dominic Langevin (Leo’s personal live in priest in Maine)
Tim Busch — California wine hospitality billionaire, offices EWTN
Napa Institute — Founded by Tim Busch, Leonard Leo and Mary Hasson on board, wife of Seamus, Becket Fund founder
Capitol Research Center — Scott Walter, formerly Becket Fund
The Catholic Association — Ashley McGuire, Becket Fund
Catholic University of America — Busch School of Business, Leonard Leo law chair
Knights of Malta
Knights of Columbus
George Mason University — Antonin Scalia School of Law, Mercatus Center
Adrian Vermeule, Patrick Deneen — Catholic Integralist “Intellectuals”
Bishop Barron, Bill Donahue — MAGA Catholic PR
Wonder Project — Leo funded faith based movies — invading living rooms everywhere on Amazon.
That last line about Wonder Project is chilling. Unlimited cash to radicalize minds through Amazon products.
As Tom says, it’s time for people to take ownership of what they consume and how it impacts them. No one is coming to save us so we have to help each other, one at a time.
And as I’ve long been saying, “I read it on the internet” is no longer an excuse to be misinformed.
You can find Tom on all platforms at: thcarter123. You can also find him performing music in DC venues.
Here’s Tom playing some Paul Simon:
Here he is recording the Woody Guthrie song, Deportee, on a recent trip to Mexico:
As Tom’s bio on Medium states: “Leonard Leo was my boss 2009-2012. I tried to warn you.”
Please join us on Tuesday, and if you can’t afford a membership, RadPod will be releasing an interview with Tom in coming days.
Bette members, keep scrolling xo
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