GOP front-runner Donald Trump may not be the strongest Christian running in the 2016 GOP primary, but that doesn’t mean he can’t win the evangelical vote, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough suggested on Tuesday.
The cable news host’s remarks came one day after Trump appeared at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., to deliver a speech before a throng of evangelical students.
When it comes to electing candidates to office, evangelicals aren’t always looking for the best Christian or even the most Christ-like person, Scarborough said, citing his own experience running for office in Florida.
Evangelical voters usually say things like, “God can worry about his personal life. I want somebody that’s going to fight for my values and defend my values,” he said.
Scarborough said that means it makes no sense to rule out Trump winning the evangelical vote.
Evangelicals hear Donald Trump saying, “‘Christianity is under attack from the [politically correct] police. ‘I’m going to fight for them,'” Scarborough said.
He then called the panel’s attention to a New York Times report, titled “Evangelicals See Donald Trump as Man of Conviction, if Not Faith,” claiming evangelical voters are not entirely opposed to the billionaire tycoon’s White House run.
“They know that Donald Trump, a guy that will go around saying Merry Christmas, they know that Trump is going to fight for them. And guess what? They are very — evangelicals are very astute voters,” Scarborough said.
