Pro-Trump pastor: We support his policies but not extramarital affairs

Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Monday night that evangelical supporters of President Trump don’t support his alleged extramarital affairs but do support his “excellent policies.” 

“I know a lot of people are still perplexed — why are Christians so supportive of Donald Trump?” Jeffress said during an appearance on Fox News. “Well, it’s really not that hard to figure out when you realize he is the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-conservative judiciary in history and that includes either Bush or Ronald Reagan.” 

The pro-Trump pastor went on to say that is why he believes so many evangelicals remain committed to the president a week after his former longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance violations relating to payments he arranged shortly before the election to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

{mosads}“We have to understand these are still allegations against the president, so I’m not going to judge the president on these things. But even if they were true, some of these allegations, I mean, obviously, we don’t support extramarital affairs, we don’t support hush money payments, but what we do support are these president’s excellent policies,” Jeffress said.

“And don’t be mistaking what is going on here. Those who hate President Trump, those on the left know that if they can dislodge his evangelical supporters from him, they have a shot at overtaking the White House,” Jeffress continued. “I think the left is trying to shame people like myself continuously for supporting this great president. It’s not going to work. We’re not going to turn away from him.”

Shortly after Cohen pleaded guilty last week, Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was also convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. 

Trump has since accused Cohen of making up stories to “get a ‘deal’ ” and said in a tweet that he has “such respect” for Manafort because he did not “break” like Cohen by providing prosecutors with damaging information. 

The White House also contended last week that Trump “did nothing wrong” in his dealings with Cohen and said there “are no charges against him.”