Hundreds of evangelicals are expected to converge on Washington in June for a day-long meeting with President Donald Trump over concerns about his sex scandals they fear could jeopardize turnout in November, NPR reports.
Johnnie Moore, an informal evangelical adviser to Trump, confirmed such a meeting is being discussed but called it "entirely conceptual" at this point.
Evangelical leaders are planning the sit-down with Trump at his hotel in D.C. for June 19, and they plan to directly ask the president — privately, at least — about his alleged relationships with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, NPR reports.
However, Moore says policy issues — not the president's alleged indiscretions — would be the focal point of the gathering.
"There is a very active discussion about the desire of evangelical leaders to get together again, principally to discuss policy issues going into 2018," Moore told NPR, adding that he's not one of the organizers but rather an informed observer.
"And it has nothing to do with any questions about the past life of our president," Moore said.
The event is meant to reassure anxious evangelical pastors and rally political leaders ahead of November's midterms, NPR reports. The leaders are hoping the president will take questions for 90 minutes, though Moore says no decisions have been made regarding the format.
"What I think will happen if there is a meeting and he participates," Moore told NPR, "I think there will be one heck of a celebration."
But the nature of the event and the concerns about November are varied among evangelicals.
"It is a concern of ours that 2018 could be very detrimental to some of the other issues that we hold dear," a leader told NPR, with another noting concern that Trump's behavior could suppress evangelical turnout.
"If these folks don't turn out in record numbers in 2018, it's gonna be a long night for Republicans," Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told NPR.
But another brushed off the whole Daniels episode as much ado about nothing.
"I just honestly don't hear hand-wringing over the issue," Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America told NPR. "This president is not Rick Santorum or Mike Huckabee; he doesn't pretend to be a Bible-banging evangelical."
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