Cardinal Müller: Catholics voted for Trump because Harris was a ‘strongly anti-life candidate’

(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that the majority of Catholics in the U.S. voted for Donald Trump because Kamala Harris was an “anti-life candidate.”

When asked by the Italian newspaper Il Tempo if he expected that the U.S. Catholic vote would help make Donald Trump president again, Cardinal Müller replied “yes” and added, “It was clear to me that the position on ethical issues would be decisive for the Catholic electorate because Kamala Harris was a strongly anti-life candidate.”

“The recommended criterion remains to vote for pro-life politicians,” the prelate and former head of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith said.

READ: Exit polls show Trump won Catholic vote by ‘massive margin’ of 15 points

Cardinal Müller rated the presidency of Joe Biden “negatively,” stressing that “[i]t is not enough to present yourself as a Catholic if you then adopt anti-Christian policies.”

He said he saw “a tendency toward totalitarianism” in Kamala Harris.

“The risk of having a state ready to define the boundaries of religious freedom would have been real” if Harris had won the presidency.

“You cannot govern by ideology, as Harris would have done. The state is not a divine institution, and we are not in the world to serve it,” he said.

Cardinal Müller recalled meeting Trump two years ago when he was in the U.S., where Trump expressed “his respect for the Catholic faith.”

The German cardinal also met Sen. J.D. Vance, now the vice president-elect, during his U.S. trip.

“Vance told me that it was precisely his encounter with Catholicism that enabled him to overcome the problems he was dragging from childhood,” Cardinal Müller said.

Cardinal Müller: ‘The state has the right’ to deport illegal immigrants

Asked about the differences of opinion on immigration between Pope Francis and Trump, Cardinal Müller stated:

The Church must defend the human dignity of all people, including illegal migrants. However, it is necessary to remember that no one has the right to live where they want. Intervening on illegal immigration is not at all against human rights.

“Is deporting an illegal migrant anti-Christian conduct?” Il Tempo asked him.

“Absolutely not,” he replied. “When faced with illegal immigration, a state has the right to send people back to their countries of origin if they do not risk their lives there.”

“We have to help developing countries, but we cannot think, for example, that the whole population of Africa can move to Europe to solve problems,” Cardinal Müller said.

“A state has the right to defend its borders and restore legality,” he continued. “Those who are dying at sea and are in an emergency situation should be rescued, but quite another thing are the rules to establish legal immigration.”

When asked how he views Trump’s habit of mentioning God in his speeches, Cardinal Müller said he “prefer[s] representatives in public life who refer to God in their speeches to those who instead act as if they are God or as if their party is.”