Jentezen Franklin, an evangelical adviser to President Trump, defended evangelical support for Trump during an interview Friday on Hill.TV, saying evangelicals care more about the president’s policies than his personality.
“When you line these people up with what we believe in the faith community, it’s not the personality, it’s the policy that we care about,” Franklin told hosts Jamal Simmons and Buck Sexton on “Rising.” “Personalities in the presidency will come and go.”
“When I looked at Hillary [Clinton] and I looked at President Trump, and I looked at where she stood on pro-life, where she stood on so many issues, where she stood on economics, where she stood on everything, and it’s pretty obvious the president was more in line with what I believe than Hillary,” he continued. “And so I chose the president.”
Trump has delivered on various campaign promises for the evangelical community, including appointing conservative judges to courts across the country and moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The president defended anti-abortion beliefs Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast, telling audience members that “all children, born and unborn, are made in the holy image of God.”
Franklin told Hill.TV that Trump was the most pro-life president in his lifetime.
Some have questioned the evangelical community’s support of Trump, citing his past comments about women and extramarital affairs.
Despite negative news coverage of Trump’s personal life and the administration, evangelicals are still considered a loyal voting bloc for the president.
Exit polls from the 2018 midterm elections, reported by Newsweek, showed that 75 percent of white evangelical voters backed Republicans in the election, which was widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s first two years in office.
“All of those things happened before he got in office,” Franklin said. “I do know that he surrounds himself with people who have faith.”
— Julia Manchester
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