America's conservative religious leaders are staying with President Donald Trump's evangelical advisory board, despite his remarks about the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, which appeared to defend white supremacists.
Over the past week, some of America's most prominent business leaders fled two business advisory councils and an infrastructure panel set up by Trump in protest of his remarks, forcing the president to disband them.
But The Guardian reports that Trump's religious evangelical advisory board appears to be squarely behind him for now.
Among its members are:
- A.R. Bernard senior pastor, founder of the Christian Cultural Center
- Mark Burns, pastor, Harvest Praise & Worship Center
- Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors
- Former Rep. Michele Bachmann, a founder of the House Tea Party Caucus
- Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, founders of Kenneth Copeland Ministries
- James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family
- Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University
- Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition
- Tony Suarez, executive vice-president of the National Hispanic Christian leadership conference
"Not only have members avoided criticism of the president, while occasionally scolding the violence in general – some have been openly supportive of Trump's statements assigning blame 'on many sides' and slamming those who turned up to oppose the militant neo-Nazis," The Guardian's Joanna Walters and Sam Morris report.
For example, Falwell on Wednesday, tweeted:
In a follow-up the next day, he added:
The commander in chief sparked outrage when he first said "many sides" were to blame for the violence in which counter-protester Heather Heyer, 32, was killed.
He later flip-flopped and called out the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and white supremacist groups. Then, he flip-flopped again, going back to his "many sides" view Tuesday.
Trump also said some of the alt-right protesters are "very nice people" and both sides of the protests had some "very fine" people. And he lamented the removal of "beautiful" Confederate monuments across the country.
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