Pastor says evangelicals don’t care if Trump had sex with a porn star
Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress found himself in a familiar position last week: defending evangelicals’ support of President Donald Trump following actions that would seem to be at odds with evangelical principles.
Last week, the leader of First Baptist Dallas appeared on Fox News to discuss whether it was valid to call evangelicals hypocrites if they backed a man who is alleged to have committed adultery with an adult-film actress.
Jeffress’ take: A strong no.
“It’s absolutely ludicrous,” he said, adding that “evangelicals know that they’re not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president.”
Porn actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said in a lawsuit that she had an “intimate relationship” with Trump in 2006 and 2007 — shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to Barron Trump.
Daniels is seeking to invalidate an agreement that paid her $130,000 to keep mum about her involvement with Trump so that she can “set the record straight.”
Jeffress said in the Fox News segment that none of this matters to evangelicals who voted for Trump.
“Evangelicals still believe in the commandment: Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star,” he said. “However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”
Evangelicals were aware “they weren’t voting for an altar boy,” he continued. “We supported him because of his policies and his strong leadership.”
He went on to say forgiveness is available to anyone who asks.
Jeffress said that he would never walk away from Trump and that it would take more than the current allegations for evangelical voters to do so.
“I think if his policy changes or if he were found to be in an adulterous relationship now, that would cause many people a problem,” he said.
Jeffress, who serves as one of the president’s evangelical advisers and preached at a service the morning of Trump’s inauguration, has previously defended Trump after he reportedly crudely disparaged a number of nations, criticized a tell-all book that aimed to show the inner workings of the Trump White House and asserted God has given the president “the authority to take out Kim Jong Un.”
On Tuesday, CBS News president David Rhodes said that an interview between Daniels and Anderson Cooper for “60 Minutes” needs more work but is on its way. Buzzfeed has reported the president’s lawyers were weighing an attempt to request an injunction that would prevent it from airing.