Bill Bennett on Leaked Emails: 'This Crowd Anti-Catholic for a Long Time'

Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett said he was not surprised by leaked emails showing Hillary Clinton's staff bashing conservative Catholics.

"This crowd has been anti-Catholic for a long time," Bennett said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File." "These are transatlantic agnostic progressives. They do not believe in things like the authority of the Catholic Church."

In emails purported to have been hacked from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, he along with communications director Jennifer Palmieri and John Halpin of the liberal Center for American Progress discussed what they saw as a needed liberal revolution inside the church. They expressed disdain conservatives Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp Chairman Robert Thomson raised their children Catholic.

Bennett said the group opposes Catholic teaching on same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion.

"They just can't stand that," he said. "Catholics, I hope, will take note of this. Their faith is being attacked. Their faith is being disparaged, and they should react to it."

With Clinton leading Republican Donald Trump in the polls, Bennett said he fears "the age of Clinton," which he said has been here too long "may last even longer."

"This is the underbelly of identity politics," he said. "'People who don't agree with us are backward, they need to be educated, we need a revolution.' And, boy, that may be coming with the reign of Hillary Clinton, should that, God forbid, occur."

But, he added, "I think the Catholic Church will outlast the Clintons, and I think it will be around when they are long gone."

On Trump's own troubles involving lewd sexual talk and allegations by at least three women of inappropriate contact, Bennett said he initially thought it might be a good idea to put Trump's running mate Mike Pence atop the ticket.

"But that's impossible now," he said. "Those ballots are out there. Stick with Trump. It's still possible. It's hard because of the way the thing has been played and because of Trump's mistakes, frankly, many of them. But when you listen to what the Clintons are up to, and what this campaign is up to, and how intolerant and bigoted these people are, we can see what the stakes are."

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