While Comey Speaks, Trump Finds Refuge With Evangelical Supporters
Donald Trump speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, June 8, 2017 Image by Getty Images
By Nathan Guttman June 8, 2017
President Donald Trump found a friendly audience at the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, as the nation’s attention was focused on Capitol Hill where fired FBI director James Comey described his interactions with Trump and his dismissal.
The audience, comprised mostly of evangelicals, received Trump warmly, cheered his applause lines about Obamacare and provided the president with a temporary refuge from the news awaiting him back at the White House.
In return for the warm embrace, Trump repeated promises he had made early in his presidency to end the “siege” against conservative Christians, who, he said, didn’t let him down.
“We will always support our evangelical community and defend your right and the right of all Americans to follow and to live by the teachings of their faith,” Trump said, adding that “we are under siege” but reassuring his listeners that “we will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever, you watch.”
Trump repeated his pledge to repeal the Johnson Amendment which prohibits political speech, such as the endorsement of candidates, in the pulpit.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
