Ralph Reed, Perkins, Prominent Evangelicals Still Backing Trump After Graphic Video

https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/prominent-evangelicals-still-backing-trump-after-graphic-vid?utm_term=.dkKEV4QRe#.ouLOxgN5Q

CLEVELAND — A tape of Donald Trump making extremely crude remarks about women is putting evangelical leaders who endorsed him in a tougher spot than almost anyone else in the Republican Party — and on Friday, two of the country’s most powerful Christian conservative leaders did not disavow him.
“Voters of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defend religious freedom, create jobs, and oppose the Iran nuclear deal,” Faith and Freedom Coalition president Ralph Reed said in an email to BuzzFeed News. “Ten-year-old tapes of private conversation with a television talk show host rank very low on their hierarchy of concerns.”
Asked if he had any comment on the tape itself and is definitely standing by Trump, Reed said, “I think the statement is self explanatory.”
Tony Perkins, who leads the Family Research Council, also did not reject Trump in the wake of the revelations, but indicated that he doesn’t share Trump’s values.
“My personal support for Donald Trump has never been based upon shared values, it is based upon shared concerns about issues such as: justices on the Supreme Court that ignore the constitution, America’s continued vulnerability to Islamic terrorists and the systematic attack on religious liberty that we’ve seen in the last 7 1/2 years,” Perkins said in an email to BuzzFeed News.
The Washington Post published a video on Friday afternoon of Trump talking on a hot mic with Access Hollywood host Billy Bush in lewd terms about women, saying things such as “grab ‘em by the pussy” and “I moved on her like a bitch,” among other vulgar remarks.

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