Ex-RNC chair rips evangelical leaders standing by Trump: ‘Don’t ever preach to me’ again

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele ripped evangelicals for standing by President Trump amid reports Trump had a sexual encounter with an adult film star while he was married.

“Just shut the hell up and don’t ever preach to me about anything ever again,” Steele said during an MSNBC appearance on Tuesday.

“I don’t want to hear it, because after telling me how to live my life, who to love, what to believe, what not to believe, what to do and what not to do, and now you sit back. And if the prostitutes don’t matter, if the grabbing the you-know-what doesn’t matter, the outright behavior and lies do not matter, just shut up,” he said. 

Various prominent evangelical leaders have come forward to defend the president after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, who performs as Stormy Daniels, to prevent her from revealing the alleged encounter from 2006.

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Son of famed televangelist Franklin Graham said in an interview he believes Trump has changed as a person. 

“I believe that he’s a changed person and I’ve never seen anybody get attacked like he gets attacked,” Graham said on CNN.

“These alleged affairs, they’re alleged with Trump, didn’t happen while he was in office,” Graham continued, noting Clifford’s reported encounter was from 2006.

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, also came to the president’s defense on Tuesday, saying Trump deserves a second chance.

“Evangelicals understand what a second chance means and that’s what that comment was made in the context of,” Perkins said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“He embraced himself in the most conservative party platform ever. And yes, evangelical conservatives gave him a mulligan,” he continued. “They let him have a do over.” 

Prominent evangelical leaders have come to Trump’s defense in the past, most recently after it was reported he referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as “shithole countries.”