For god and country, the christian case for trump. Mr. Reed, what is that case and. Guest well, the case in a nutshell is that as christians, were called to not only be citizens of the kingdom of god, which is both here now and yet to come, and were also called to be citizens on earth of whatever policy or society or nation we happen to be part of. And were if you look at the old and the new testament, theres a consistent and clear teaching that we are to exercise that citizenship in a robust and muscular fashion. First of all to defend our rights, within that government, which of course in the United States means rights under the constitution and at the bill of rights, to a freedom of speech to assembly to tree dom of religion. Freedom of religion that are our birthright and then secondly as a witness of our faith. So in the context of the decision by the overwhelming majority of evangelical christians and pro life and pro family and faithful roman catholics to back trump, both in 2016 and today, my argument in the book is that if you look at where he stands on the issues, that they would define as moral issues, issues central to their faith, issues like the right to life, the right to religious freedom, the defense of the state of israel, moving the courts in the direction of respect for the constitution and the bill of rights, and not slating from the bench. Creatingcourt as the legislature which theyre not supposed to be. Their are all issued that in my view and in the view of tens of million odd voter are defining moral issues that are central to their core as people of faith and on those issues, donald trump pledged to share a pledge he has kept, and Hillary Clinton and i would argue now joe biden are on the opposite side of every one of those issues. So, not that they didnt have reservations but trump, they did, and i document that in the book. It was a struggle for many of these voters, but they made the right call. Not just politically but morally, and theyve been totally vein indicated for making that call because he kept those promises. What example how he kept the promises. Guest well, i actually have 30page appendix in the book that is titled promises made, promises kept, that details all of these promises. And whatever you think of trump, its an extraordinary record of achievement, but just to name a few, on the life issue, he is the first president to ever come in person and address the march for life, the first president to send his Vice President to address the march for life. Thats not just symbolism. The bully pulpit of this office is very important. It sets the tone for the culture. The hes the first president since roe v. Wade to begin the process of defunding planned parenthood, the largest abortion provided in the world today. They receive a half bill dollars a year in taxpayer funding and he has taken steps to enthat. He also moved the u. S. Embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem, recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel, as a believers in the idea that defending jews and supporting israel is part of our faith, that is important to us, and finally in his court appointments, its easy to forget this bus he but he was the First Major Party candidate for president in American History to release a list of 21 names with a vacancy on the Supreme Court on election day, and say if you elect me president im not going pick someone like these 21 people. Im going to choose one of these 21. Now, when he did that in may of 2016, his critics accused him of being a liar. They said you cant trust him. We dont believe him. There was this sort of snarky commentary, you know, he wouldnt he wasnt true to in his marriages so not going to be true in this promise. They were all wrong. He not only kept that promise in february of 2017 when he appointed neil gorsuch, he kept it again in july of 2018 when he picked brett kavanaugh. Theyre beth on the Supreme Court today. He has kept it another 200 times. About 50 times with appealal court judges and the rest district judges and to conservative and bible believing christians those are important promises to keep because we think upholding our right to religious freedom he First Amendment right ultimately will be determined by the court. Host ralph reed you mentioned the prolife position of the president a couple of times and in your book you write, i had heard a lot of formerly prochoice candidates explain how they came to their pro life views in my career, but few had more genuine stories than trumps. What is the president s story . Guest i detail it in the book. I detail the fact that i got to know the president in 2011. He literally coldcalled me. Never met him before in my life. Honestly didnt have a high opinion of him. And i told him that. When he called me. And he said the next time youre in new york, come see me. I did. I told him that if he was serious but running for president he should come to one of the events of my organization, faith and Freedom Coalition and get to know some of these vaccinal activists of he did that repeatedly and one time i met with him in trump tower, he, without me eliciting it, he raised it, he said i used to be pro choice but let me tell you what happened. He said i had good friend of mine who became pregnant. And it was an inconvenient or unplanned pregnancy. And by the way most are. And she didnt really know what to do. Her husband warranted her to have anberg an abortion, and his whom who was augend from and he and melania were good friends of the couple said what do you think shy do and he didnt know what to say to this person. Long story short, she made the decision to keep the child. The child does not know that she was nearly aborted. She certainly doesnt know that trump knows that. But he watched this woman grow up knowing that, and in his telling to me he said, she is an amazing woman, and a star. And she said so i started thinking to myself, she almost didnt make it. And that is when i decided that there were probably millions of people like that who arent with us, and i cant judge his heart. I dont know whether or not that was that change of heart was genuine or it was politically calculated. But it sounds genuine to me, and whatever the facts are and only god can jump our heart. The factes hes the most prolife president we have ever had. He kept his word and i think its real. Host you mentionedey yao did not have a high opinion of donald trump in 2011 and you write in your book that christians are not seeking a political savior in donald trump. So there is a political calculus here . Guest well, theres certainly a calculuses a citizens and i walk through it in my book and i talk a little bit about it in answer to a previous question you had that were called upon as citizens, i believe, to first of all defend our right and i talk about in the book about how when he a apostle paul was arrested in jerusalem, and this is all detailed in the book of acts, and he was about to be put on trial, it was going to be a Kangaroo Court and he was going to be executed. He exercised the most precious right of a roman citizen which was to appeal his case to caesar. It was unbelievable sacred right of a roman citizen. And in the roman world, very few people actually were citizen is. Certainly most jews were not. He was. And to caesar he went. He did it maltly die but it thought it was interesting while he was willing to die for the gospel he wasnt willing to surrender his lights as a roman his rights as a roman. So were called upon to defend our right, trump has offered to defend our rights. And by the way, the caesar at that time, the occupant of that office, was tiberius who was notorious sexual deviant, pedophile, murder his opponents and had their bodies float down the river to intimidate his critics. He was nat good man. But that is who paul appealed to. And so thats the first their thing were called to do. The second this is were called to advance the common and the moral good and aquote Ronald Reagan in his famous address to the National Association of evangelicals in 1983 and he said look you dont get to check out of citizenship and say, both sides are flawed. You have to choose a side. And he was talking about communism verse capital limp but applies notice our own context. The third thing were called to do is resist evil and i believe that abortion on demand is a moral evil, and trump is offering to resist that. So that in it sense is the argue. It thats the christian case, not that he is perfect. Because none of us are perfect. Not that he is without sin, because all of us sin. But on these aspects, of a true understanding of citizenship, he is someone that we can work with and who is offered to defend these things and advance the common good. Mr. Reed theres a longtime political strategist and activist and insider, do you see this president as suffering more slings and arrows than previous occupants of the office. Guest you know, it seems to come with the office if you studied and read American History as i have, and you read the thing said about thomas jefferson, that he was a infidel and an agent of the french government, sounds a little reminiscent, doesnt it . The thing said about abraham lincoln, the things said about fdr. He wanted to be a dictator so it is does kind of come with the territory but i think in trumps case, at least in the modern political era, post world war ii, ive never seen anything like it. I think part of it is because he takes on the media. He gives as good as he gets and then they sort of try pay him back. Ive never seen coverage this negative, this unfair, or this withering and chapter 14 of the book is about that. And secondly, thing about this. He was under investigation or at least his campaign was, while he was running for president , by the fbi and the justice department, an investigation that continued after he was sworn in. Based on the false predicate that he mights be an asset of russia. A hostile foreign power. We now know that was a complete lie. We now know that the predicate of that investigation was a total fraud. And it was based on Opposition Research that was a lie, from the Hillary Clinton campaign, but i i dont think anything lick that has ever happened before in American History. Back to your become, quote, impeachment was a fools errand. But mr. Reed in todays political environment, given the fact that were in the world that we are, is impeachment going to be forgotten about . Guest you mean by voters in 2020 or by host yes, by voters in 2020. Guest well, unfortunately, and i was in the room so to speak, during the clinton impeachment in 199899, i think impeachment its always been a political weapon by definition. I think that was the case in 1867 with andrew johnson. But i think the bar has really been lowered. I think it was lowered when republicans impeached clinton, and i argue that at the time. I was in the room, i was part of gingrichs Speaker Advisory Group and then at the Christian Coalition and i certainly didnt agree with what bill clinton did in having the affair with an intern and then lying about it under oath, but i just questioned whether or not wait was advisable given have the fact at that time impeachment was dead on arrival in the senate to proceed, and i think i was right then. But there were many people that felt this undermined the rule of law and i certainly didnt disagree with that. I think its been cheapened even more under pelosi. I think it essentially became a partisan tool and was a joke and i think that if you go out and conduct a poll today and ask people what they thought of impeachment, i think its going to be viewed throw a partisan lens depending on who the voter is. I think thats unfortunate but seems to be part of that partisan pathway back sponsor. What diyou think of the president s walk to st. Johns episcopal. Guest i strongly supported it. I i released a statement at the time to that effect. I supported it for two reasons. Number one, because i think the president was making a strong and powerful statement by walking across Lafayette Park that were not going to allow 0 cities or streets to be taken over by criminals, by looters, and by domestic terrorists. Who burned down businesses, shoot police officers, and in the case of st. Johns, tried to burn down one of the most sake credit ecclesiastical spaces in our country. That is wrong, its over the line, it dishonored the memory of george floyd, contrary to everything that Martin Luther king jr. Day preached, lived and talked, and it ultimately is counterproductive to addressing the very real issue of racism, discrimination Police Brutality. And the second message he was sending is that while we need to fight the eye veil of racism and while we need Public Policy responses to racism and Police Brutality and i support all of that. My organization, faith and Freedom Coalition, lobbied for years to Christian Justice reform so that africanamericans who we believe had been unfairly incarcerated under mass inauguration would get a Second Chance at life. Not just africa africanamericans but disdis proportionately those of curl but ultimately what the original sin of racism can be fund the repentant, the forgiveness, and the redemption that is sound through the gospel. And by going there, trump was saying that. And i strongly supported it. Host ralph reed, another topic you cover in your new book, for god and country, is Vice President mike pence. Quote, in pence trump gained what all president s want but few get, an effective, loyal advocate who has no agenda other than to advance and protect the single client, namely the president. Guest right. Im biased because mike pence is a friend of mine and i talk in the book. Got to know hem when he came to congress. We became friends. We would have him speak at faith and freedom other vents around the country. When he was a congressman, and i think vary highly of him and very highly of him and i talk the behind the scene story homicide he ended up on the ticket, stories he shared with me, and i think that mike pence is one of the finest Vice President s we have ever had. I know the president is grateful to have him. And i know the president loves him. Thinks very highly of him and values his counsel tremendously. I couldnt tell all the stories i know in the become but the role he has played in the administration but i do share some of them, and i think even though mike pence is obviously a person of great ambition of is own, i think a godly ambition, i think his main and only consideration is to serve the president. And its country and i think hes done an incredible job doing so, including most recently heading up the White House Coronavirus task force. Host what has been your involvement with the Trump Administration as an adviser, its. Guest well, im a friend of the president and a friend of the Vice President and obviously a friend of a lot of the people who have served there or serve there now. Thats really my main role. I support them. I do everything i can to work with. The to make their job easier. Its a very tough job. In addition to that i serve on the White House Faith Initiative and then finally, in any capacity as head of faith and freedom, we work very closely with the white house on a lot of Public Policy matters, including the life issue, criminal justice reform, immigration reform, many other issues we work with them so i have a great team at faith and freedom and theyre in the white house on a weekly basis, working on those issues to advance that Public Policy. Host when you look at the hard numbers, what percentage of evangelicals support donald trump over joe biden . Guest well, in 2016, they supported donald trump at the highest level ever recorded in modern american political history. The got 81 of the vote, hilary got 16. I dont know that ive seen a ballot test yet that had a evangelical sample that i considered to be reliable enough yet. But right now the president s job approval, which is a fairly good indication, depending on the poll is between 65 and 75 . Thats about where he was in the polling in the summer of 2016, and i think once we get past the pandemic and have more reopening and we can have a Real Campaign and biden picks his running smile he have the conventions think ill will be hey sevens in no mid80s and i predict that evangelicals will vote for the president and even larger numbers than they did in 2016. And for good reason. Given all that he has achieved. Hes richly deserved their support. Host are there enough evangelicals to help bring donald trump over the finish line in 2020 . No not by themselves but theyre a very critical constituency. Theyre 27 of the entire electorate and when you come bin the number of mainline christians dont identify at evangelical but consider the baseball to be the word of god, pray daily go to church weekly, wouldnt subscribe to he term born again but share she faith and frequently mass attending roman catholics, its roughly 36 of the electorate. Big theyre the africanamerican volt, the hispanic vote and the union vote combined and theyre going to turn out in big numbers and really matter, particularly those pro life catholics. Theyre going to make or break the president ial race in the upper midwest and those critical states of michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. So, yes, theyre really important, and theyre not the only constituency but theyre the larger, most dynamic and the most vibrant constituency in the entire electorate. Host one thing you do at the end of the book is you look at 2020, but you do it through the lens of 2016. 6. 5 billion was spent overall in the all the 2016 elects and you say its going to be an increase that the democrats and the left are registering voters at a faster pace than the republicans. What does the landscape look like to you today given everything were going through . Guest well, obviously peter i wrote the book prior to the pandemic, and so that kind of forced both campaigns to go all virtual and all online. For some period of time. The president has announced he is about to begin his rallies again and i believe the first one is going to be within the next ten days to two weeks. I understand its going to be in oklahoma. So well see what happens. But prior to this, the educated projections were that the two sides would spend 10 billion between them. Dont know whether well hit that number now or not. But were continuing to register voters. In the states where we can we are doing it doctor to door and online. Im sure the left is as well. I think well have the biggest turnout in American History in a president ial race, both in raw numbers and in the share of the electorate. The bigger share of the registered voters we have had since 1968. Its going to be big, its going to be close, its going to be hard fought and because theres going to be so much reliance on absentee voting, early voting and mailin ballots because of the pandemic, candidly, dont i cant predict but because it takes longer to vote cast those votes and they can be post marked as late as election day depending on the state, we may not even know the winner in some of these states. For days. Its going to be Something Like we have never seen before. Host maybe some people dont know that you have a ph. D in history from memory university. What was your field of study . Guest my field of study was the my focus was the south. It was American History since 1865. Focus id on the south. I studied under some of the finest southern historians in the country at that time, dan. Carter and jim roark who run my desserts Addition Committee dissertation commitee. I learned so much from them and my doctoral dissertation was a history of evangelical Higher Education in the south between 1865 and roughly world war i. I didnt end up teaching but i ended up using all that he learn later for what ended up doing at the Christian Coalition and now faith and tree dom. Its kind 0 freedom. Its interesting the wail my life took a turn i didnt expect but i still ended up benefiting so much from that doctoral education. Host how did you come to your politics . Guest i think the belles way i could describe it, was raised in a republican household and that was my background but the way i really kind of got fired up and engaged was a guy from california named Ronald Reagan. I was a student at the university of georgia. He ran for president in 1980. I was the chairman of the College Republicans on the largest State University in jimmy carters home state of georgia, and nothing against carter personally. I have great admire for him as a admiration for him as a fellow christian but i didnt feel hills policies and leadership were giving my generation the brightest future for the country, and i get really excited about Ronald Reagan and went out and worked my tail off for him and i was a reaganite and that was the beginning. Then i really never looked back. Host you have an image as does reagan as kind of a happy warrior. Would you describe donald trump in that way . Guest yeah, i would say yes with a heavy dollop of queens, new york, a little did of a different social and cultural location than i am. And i have Great Respect for that. I think were all unique based on our upbringing, our experience, our background, our family, and he is a very unique individual. I had the privilege of sitting in this office on a lot of occasions and every now and again people would just walk in and talk to him or heed take a phone call and i couldnt really believe that he would let me just sit there and have a birds eye view to how he operated, but let me tell you i get quite an education on what it was like to be in the Real Estate Industry in manhattan just listening to him talk and be who he was. But i do think his a happy warrior. Think he believes in the country, hes a patriot. He thinks the best is yet to come. He very much believes that things that other people dont think can happen, can happen. He dreams big help thinks big, and he acts big. And he is a counter puncher. Everybody knows that. But he looks for the best and he believes the best, and i have to say i talk about this in the book even though i didnt have a high opinion of him going in and i told him that, i found him to be impossible not to like. I connected with him from that very first phone call. And i really grew to like him and love him and his family. And its an extraordinary family, and he is an american original. Amazing what he has done. Host as an historian do you see parallels to 1968 . Guest well, yes and no. I mean, we obviously were in the middle of what was the longest war that america had ever been in at that time. A deeply divisive war with our College Campuses in an uproar, violence in our streets on a level that far exceeds what we have now. And so i think it was more divisive then by far. You had chicago, the democratic convention, just completely turned upsidedown by mayor Richard Daleys police. Billy clubbing the protesters and all that violence. Dont think we have anything quite like that. Each time is unique, each time is different. Host what about the president running as a quoteunquote law and order president . Guest well, id say yes and no. Think its a very different time. It remains to be seen whether or not the protests row rated to the george floyd episode ever rise to the occasion that we saw in terms of the riots and the demonstrations that rose out of the tragic d assassination or Martin Luther king and then the assassination of bobby kennedyin 1968. Its my own hope, mr. Desire, dont in whether it will happen but im hopeful and playing it will that the democrats will pass some kind of a Police Reform bill in the house, i think tim scott working i hope on a bipartisan basis, tim scott, the africanamerican republican senator from South Carolina with all if what i hope will be a bipartisan bill in the senate, hopefully we can get to a Conference Committee and resolve those bills and the president can sign Bipartisan Legislation sometime this summer. Ralph reed is the former chair of the Georgia Republican party he georgia up for grabs this year. Its certainly competitive. No question. Wait was in 2016. Was in 2018. It will be hard fought. We have two u. S. Senate races that are on the ballot, two senate races because of the retirement of Johnny Isaacson and the appointment of kellly leffler as his replacement that witness bell open primary on november 3rd revolved by a runoff. And then the other senate seat, david purdues senate seat. John is either the likely or i cant where that was resolved, and then the president ial race i think in 2016 was 3 , 4 , 5 and probably will be again. So its battleground state. Reminds to be seen how much money the democrats are willing to put in here, how much can they invest. Hillary came in here but not with a huge amount of money and trump won it and i think donald trump will win it again. Host let finish with this, from your become, for god and country you asked this question. As a christian i believed god was sovereign in the affairs of nations. Could providence have ordered this moment the Trump Presidency contrary to our own ambitions and expectations . Guest whats the answer to that question. Well, if you believe as i do that god is sovereign in the affairs of women and men and nations then the answer is questions. Contrary could what we expected, and i document in the book, that twothirds of evangelical voters supported somebody else on the republican primaries. He was not their first choice hitch did win the evangelical vote but in a crowded field. So they united behind him after he became the nominee. So, they didnt expect this to happen. I think its fair to say most pundits, most pollsters, most socalled experts and certainly the media didnt expect it to happen. But that would be equally true as a christian for me with george w. Bush or obama or clinton or anybody else. Gods ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and he has plans and ropes that we dont completely understand and when someone is in leadership or authority, they are in that position either providentially or within the larger design of providence. Even when we may disagree with them, even when they may be an evil ruler thats just my belief in what my faith teaches. Thats why ultimately our hope and i make this clear in the book were not looking to donald trump or any other president or nye politician to be our stavor or delivererrer our savior or our deliverer. Our hope and our ultimate is in jesus christ and for now we may back and vote for politicians but we dont give them our ultimate loyalty. That belongs only to god. In. Host did you ever consider seminary . Guest yeah, but not seriously. I thought pout i thought about it but i dont think i missed my calling. Think i was called to do what im doing now. Host well, ralph reed is the author of this bong, for god and country, the christian case for trump. This is book number what for you . Guest i believe its seven. Host ralph reed, thank you for joining us on booktv. Guest thanks, peter, always an honor and pleasure to be with cspan. A federal judge ruled last week that former Trump AdministrationNational Security adviser john bolton could move ahead with the publication of his moyer that is credit critical of the president. The book was released this week and the white house says it will continue to pursue legal action against mr. Bolton to ensure he doesnt profit from the book. Washington post associated editor bob woodward announced he well be publishing a book on President Trump that is scheduled to be available on september 15th. This will be a followup to mr. Woodwards first book on the president , fear, trump in the white house, that came out in 2018. And President Trump responded ro the forthcoming mix of a book by his next, mary trump, that he says would violate a nondifference closure agreement she signed that prevent her from writing about the president and his family. The book too much and never enough, is slated to come out in late july. Also in the news, according to ntd become stand print book sales 5. 5 . All books saw a rise in sale except for adulton fiction. That tipped 2 and remained down 7 for the year. And the Audio Publishers Association released their annual sales survey that noted audio book sales grew 16 in 2019 from the year prior. The apa reports this is the eighth year in a row that audio book sales have exceeded doubledigits. You can watch our archived programs anytime at booktv. Org. Author and, the discussion of the baltimore uprising following the death of freddie gray. Former National Security advisor john bolt con redown his time in the Trump Administration, faith and Freedom Coalition and founder and chairman ralph reed, and former defense sect robert gates takes a critical look at at the use of u. S. Power around the world, since the end of world war ii. He its joined in conversation by former defense secretary james mattity. Find more Schedule Information at booktv. Org or consult your program. Guide. Thanking for towning out. Im laura miller the books and culture controllummist for slate. Com. This is another social distancing social from future tense in partnership with a partnership of slate, new america foundation, and arizona State University. Today were talk knight future of books. And im joined by priscilla la painton from Simon Schuster and brad tenseley, the National Political writer for c