NEWS
Ex-RNC Chair Rips Evangelical Leaders Defending Trump’s Affair With Porn Star: ‘Don’t Ever Preach To Me’ Again
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele ripped Evangelical leaders for defending President Trump amid reports he had an extramarital affair with porn star Stormy Daniels while he was married to Melania Trump.
“Just shut the hell up and don’t ever preach to me about anything ever again,” Steele said 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.
Steele was responding to the various evangelical leaders who have come to the president’s defense after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, to keep her silent about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump.
Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, called President Trump a “changed person” after reports of the alleged affair surfaced.
Franklin Graham: "I believe he's President of the United States for a reason. I believe God put him there. He offended everybody … he seemed to do everything wrong as a candidate and he won. I don't understand it other than God put him there" https://t.co/v0RZmiDFcd
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) January 24, 2018
“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, defended Trump on Tuesday saying he 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.”
