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“Would anyone like me to run for president?” Former President Donald Trump asked a crowd of thousands in a small corner of the mansion Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.
Most, if not all, of the electrified audience stood up to applaud as Trump shone from the stage.
Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, which organized the event, told reporters that it is “laser-centered” in the mid-2022 sessions. But the second day of the Conference on the Road to most, with Trump’s keynote speech re-insinuating his likely candidacy for the GOP nomination, in 2024 was raised throughout the day.
Trump’s control over the Republican Party’s evangelical Christian wing is strong simply because Trump listened to what voters wanted and kept his promises, Reed said.
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Former President Donald Trump Speaks at Road to Majority Conference Friday, June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee (AP Photo / Mark Humphrey)
The coalition of evangelical voters “is not voting on whether or not you will be an elder in their church or whether you will be admitted to heaven, because only God knows,” Reed said.
According to Reed, the Christian voter does not judge the politician’s heart, but determines whether a politician’s position aligns with his or her and assesses how well that politician fulfilled his or her promises. For many, Trump is the only president who has fulfilled his commitments to pro-life, border security and pro-Israel policies.
For Trump, 2024 looks no different than his 2020 loss.
Throughout his 90-minute speech, Trump repeatedly referred to the 2020 election and his accusations of unsupported widespread fraud to virtually every level of voting operations in the states he lost.
And Trump spent a few minutes criticizing what he saw as cowardice to former Vice President Mike Pence.
Road to Majority Conference at Gaylord Opryland, Nashville (Fox News)
“Mike Pence had a chance to be great,” Trump said, referring to the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election, a duty that belongs to the vice president. Trump has publicly called on Pence to refuse to certify the results in an attempt to get state legislatures to review the election results each state had submitted. But Pence “didn’t have the courage to act,” Trump said.
Pence is at the center of the Stop the Steal movement’s wrath to preside over congressional election certification. At the 2021 Road to Majority conference, Pence was booed when he took the stage (Reed disagreed with this was a widespread sentiment and claimed that only a handful of members of the audience booed).
And, as the Jan. 6 commission has repeated numerous times at this week’s hearings, some of the Proud Boys and Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol expressed sentiments such as “hanging Mike Pence.”
Reed, who is a close friend of Pence’s, said he has seen many presidents have a fight with his number two while he was in the White House. “They have a disagreement that goes public,” Reed said.
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Several attendees at the Road to Majority conference told Fox News that while Trump is their favorite potential GOP candidate for president in 2024, they still like Pence.
“[Pence] he said he did his due diligence and looked at the law and how it was enforced. I think that’s why he chose, I wouldn’t say he’s a coward, “said Frances Rosales.
However, Rosales, who works for the Latino Conservative Defense Group in Tennessee and is a candidate for the Rutherford County School Board, believes there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election. Although he likes Pence, so like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential GOP presidential nominee, Trump is his favorite.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, USA on February 24, 2022. (REUTERS / Octavio Jones)
“We just have to wait and see how it all goes,” Rosales said.
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As a group of strong Christian believers in the Bible, conference attendees and speakers relate political events to the Scriptures, with frequent comparisons of Trump with biblical kings and heroes.
Trump’s spiritual adviser, Paula Cain White, in her address to the crowd, reiterated her comparison of Trump with King David, which led the nation of Israel to victory over Jerusalem’s enemies. he calls “a man according to the heart of God” in the scriptures.
Like David, Trump is not afraid of what other men can do to him, but “he has a mental strength and a spiritual strength and an ability to withstand harshness and overwhelming pressure,” White said.
In general, the 2020 elections, the Capitol riots, and the state of democracy do not seem to be the focus of the evangelical coalition represented on Road to Majority.
“The economy and national security, as well as public security, will always be at the forefront of the political hierarchy of voters, and we have challenges on all three fronts, from public security, national security and the economic perspective,” he said. dir Tim. The director, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told Fox News before the conference.
Reed suggested that the Democratic Party’s strategy of focusing on Jan. 6 with this summer’s committee hearings would be counterproductive.
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“I think you’re winning the election by talking about the issues that interest voters, and voters are telling you out loud: economy, inflation, high prices, supply chain, gas prices,” Reed said.
The Jan. 6 committee, which includes two Republicans, Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, argues that Trump defended the Capitol assault and that his role incited violence and is a danger to to democracy itself. .
President Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Center, flanked by Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Left, and Vice President Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Made a statement while the House committee Investigates Jan. 6 Attack on U.S. Capitol Pursuing Contempt Charges Against Former Advisers to Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, and Dan Scavino March 28, 2022. (Photo AP / J) Scott Applewhite)
But if this case is not something that interests voters when gas pushes $ 6 a gallon, Democrats can give up mid-term sessions and prepare ammunition for a 2024 campaign against Trump, Reed said. But he believes this will also be counterproductive.
“All they can be doing is the same thing they did in all three dismissals, making him more of a martyr between conservatives and Republicans.”
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Brian Crisp, who attended the conference with his wife and son from northern Georgia, said he would vote for Trump if he ran for president, but he is also looking at DeSantis with interest.
What Crisp wants is for Republicans to win in 2022 and beyond “to continue with the things Trump started. Continue to do his job, whether president or not after 2024.”
Thomas Phippen is the editor of Fox News.