Warnock on Vance’s warning to pope: ‘This is how fascists talk’

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) on Tuesday slammed Vice President Vance’s warning to Pope Leo XIV for criticizing the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran, branding it “how fascists talk.”

Vance addressed the pope’s feud with President Trump during an event with Turning Point USA (TPUSA) in Athens, Ga. The vice president said the pontiff needs to be “careful” in his position when discussing public policy matters,

“I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” he told the crowd.

Warnock pushed back on the rhetoric, saying, “This is how despots and wannabe despots talk.”

“This is how fascists talk,” he told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki. “They tell the people who are faith leaders to ‘stay in your lane.'”

“You know, there were a lot of religious leaders during Hitler’s Third Reich,” the Georgia Democrat continued, referencing Germany’s regime led by Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. “And I’m not conflating our point, our day to that day. But I think the historical lessons are important.”

Warnock, a Baptist pastor, said the Christian churches in Nazi Germany “capitulated to Hitler. In fact, they became Reich Christians” who “decided that the appropriate place of the church was in matters of personal piety and individualistic morality, and not to address these systemic injustices.”

The Protestant and Catholic churches in Nazi Germany were seldom critical of the regime or its policies, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website. The churches, however, did not speak out against antisemitism and state violence toward Jews.

Vance also argued against Leo’s post on the social platform X last Friday stating that “God does not bless conflict” and “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

“Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?” Vance said at the TPUSA event. “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and liberated those, those innocent people, you know, those who had survived the Holocaust? I certainly think the answer is yes.”

The feud between the Vatican and the Trump administration stems from Leo’s condemnations against U.S. military campaigns abroad this year. He also called for dialogue between the U.S. and Venezuela before U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The pope has called for peace as the conflict with Tehran persists, including after the U.S. and Iran reached a 14-day ceasefire agreement. He said the president’s threat that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” was “truly unacceptable.“

Trump called him “weak” on crime and claimed he insisted Iran should have a nuclear weapon, though the pontiff has never said this. The president also claimed Leo, the first U.S. citizen to become the head of the Catholic Church, would not be in his position had Trump not been back in the White House.

The pope said he is “not afraid” of the Trump administration and that he does “not look at foreign policy from the same perspective that he may have.”

“I will continue to speak out strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems,” he added.

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