After a leading Christian magazine published on op-ed on Friday calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, his 2020 reelection campaign launched an Evangelicals outreach effort aiming to counter the criticism.
The campaign launched the ‘Evangelicals for Trump’ coalition hours after the president feuded publicly with the publisher of Christianity Today, a magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham.
The president’s re-election campaign said in an email Friday evening that the president will launch the “Evangelicals for Trump” group at an event in Miami on January 3, 2020, the Washington Times reported.
“The event will bring together Evangelicals from across the nation who support President Trump’s re-election,” said the announcement.
Citing the Democrat-led House’s proceedings that resulted in a vote to impeach the president this week, Christianity Today’s Mark Galli wrote in the editorial that the “hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see.”
“None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character,” he added.
“That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”
The op-ed drew criticism from Trump who called Christianity Today a “far left magazine” that he “won’t be reading” again.
The op-ed also drew criticism from the Rev. Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, who said he supports President Trump like his father did.
In a Facebook post, Franklin Graham revealed that his father voted for President Trump and “would not agree with their opinion piece.”
“In fact, he would be very disappointed,” Franklin Graham wrote in his post.
“I have not previously shared who my father voted for in the past election, but because of this article, I feel it is necessary to share it now,” he added.
“My father knew Donald Trump, he believed in Donald Trump, and he voted for Donald Trump. He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.”