WaPo’s Costa on Trump’s Evangelical Support: They Want a Winner More than a Purist

‘They think he’s a winner and that’s what they want more than someone who’s a purist’

BRZEZINSKI: “Jon Meacham?”
MEACHAM: “Robert, is there some sense that — I mean, Trump went to I think was Liberty University and he said there were — he quoted ‘Two Corinthians’ and so his familiarity with the vernacular of the evangelical right is perhaps not deep. Is there any pushback on that? Is there any sense that he’s not one of them?”
COSTA: “There is a deep sense among many evangelicals that he is not one of them. That he’s a thrice-married billionaire that he isn’t particularly a social conservative, that he doesn’t have that foundation in their world. And if there was a test for who would be the best evangelical [indecipherable], it’s pretty clear that Ben Carson or Ted Cruz would pass with flying colors. But when you talk to evangelicals like Jerry Falwell, Jr., like I have, you get the sense that even though Trump doesn’t meet every one of their litmus tests, even he’s not one of them in every sense, they like his strength, they have solidarity with him. That’s why you see people like Sarah Palin, an evangelical favorite, endorsing Trump. There’s a sense he can fight. They think he’s a winner and that’s what they want more than someone who’s a purist.”

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