Rick Perry says he’s being treated unfairly because of his Christianity

WASHINGTON — Rick Perry’s wild ride in the Republican presidential race took another turn Friday when the Texas governor complained of being treated unfairly by his party and discriminated against because of his Christian faith.

Perry, the one-time Republican front-runner whose support has tumbled over the past two weeks, said he agreed with statements by his wife, Anita, that he had been “brutalized” because he is a Christian and singled out for attack during televised presidential debates.

“I’ll stand by my wife. I think she’s right on both cases,” Perry said Friday.

Her claim that her husband had been “brutalized” overshadowed the Texas governor’s attempt to regain momentum on Friday with a speech outlining his new energy policy.

“I do have one of the finest women in the world that I could be married to, and she is passionate,” Perry told Good Morning America. “And I will tell you for sure that family members generally take these campaigns harder than anyone else.”

The idea of Perry being a victim first emerged on Thursday during a speech his wife gave in North Grenville University in South Carolina, in which she called her husband the “only true conservative” in the Republican race.

She described in detail how she urged him to seek the presidency — despite the governor’s initial reluctance — because she felt God was calling him to the White House.

She said she felt God calling her husband to seek the presidency before he did.

“God was already speaking to me but (Rick) didn’t want to hear it,” she said.

“I said you may not see that burning bush, but there are people seeing that burning bush for you.”

Other candidates “may feel like God called them, too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose.”

But the Texas first lady made a quick pivot to the sudden collapse of her husband’s campaign.

“It’s been a rough month. We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press. … We are being brutalized by our opponents and our own party,” she said.

“So much of that is … because of his faith.”

Perry entered the Republican race in mid-August and quickly shot to the front of the pack. With strong support from Tea Party conservatives, he polled as high as 38 per cent among GOP voters.

But his support has plunged after a series of poor debate performances and amid scrutiny from conservatives over his governing style in Texas.

In particular, he’s been criticized by the right for attempting to mandate HPV virus vaccinations for teenage girls and for providing financial aid for college tuition to children of illegal aliens.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll this week showed Perry with 16 per cent support, behind former pizza chain executive Herman Cain, who led with 27 per cent, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

“I think the debates have been unfair,” Anita Perry said at another South Carolina campaign stop.

“I think he’s been the recipient of arrows.”

The Texas governor, asked Friday why his popularity had plummeted, shrugged off his slide in the polls. He also took a veiled swipe at Cain in the process.

“I mean, we’ve been in this race for eight weeks. It’s going to be up; it’s going to be down,” he said. “I doubt very seriously if who’s leading in the polls today is going to be our nominee.”

Anita Perry, who works for a Texas non-profit that combats sexual assaults against women, has been a prominent player in her husband’s campaign from the beginning.

Her suggestion that anti-Christian sentiment is behind her husband’s campaign struggles has struck some commentators as ironic.

Last week, Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Perry supporter who heads a large Baptist church in Dallas, said Romney was not qualified to be president because he belongs to the “cult” religion of Mormonism.

During several televised interviews on Friday, Perry said he disagreed with Jeffress’s comments but declined to denounce the pastor himself.

“I’m not going to say that he can’t say what he wants to say. The issue is: Are we going to tell people what they can say? And I’m not going to be one of those,” the governor said.

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Source: National Post