Newsweek’s Cooper: More Likely to Have a Gay President Before an Atheist President

On Sunday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Weekends with Alex Witt,” Newsweek’s Matthew Cooper discussed his recent magazine piece examining the role of religion in politics.

Host Alex Witt asked Cooper if one could be successful politically without being religious, to which Cooper predicted we would be more likely to see a gay president than an atheist president.

“I think it’s tough, Alex,” Cooper said. “If I had to bet we’d have a gay president before we had an atheist president. I think Americans really want — obviously not all Americans, but folks want a degree of piety and devotion from their leaders. And you know if they’re catholic, if they’re Mormon, Jewish, Protestant, whatever — I don’t think that’s as important as just seeing some kind of faith.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor