In the course of her tin-foily attempt to deflect from her foundation’s pay-to-play scandals by smearing Donald Trump’s supporters as racist Klan members in thrall to Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton defended Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan from the alleged anti-Catholicism of Donald Trump’s campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon.

During her litany of racist innuendo, the Democratic nominee heaped special opprobrium on Bannon, who took a leave of absence as Breitbart’s Executive Chairman to join the Trump campaign.

“Bannon has nasty things to say about pretty much everyone,” Clinton told the rally crowd in Reno, NV, on Thursday. “This spring, he railed against Paul Ryan for, quote ‘rubbing his social-justice Catholicism in my nose every second.’”

“No wonder he’s gone to work for Trump – the only Presidential candidate ever to get into a public feud with the Pope,” she added.

Bannon, a Roman Catholic himself who collaborated with this writer on the documentary film “Torchbearer” about the roots of Christian civilization, was criticizing Ryan’s misuse of his Catholic faith as a pretext for his open borders immigration stance – a position which a number of his fellow Catholics (this writer included) find objectionable.

Follow Rebecca Mansour on Twitter @RAMansour