Franklin Graham Excuses Trump’s ‘Alleged Affairs’ Because They ‘Didn’t Happen While He Was in Office’

Graham Says Trump’s Affairs Aren’t Relevant Because They ‘Didn’t Happen While He Was in Office’

During the election Franklin Graham went on a 50 state tour urging voters to choose the candidate that best fit their moral beliefs. He repeatedly refused to make an endorsement but it was clear he supported Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Now that Trump is president, Graham is singing a bit of a different tune. He’s vigorously defending Donald Trump while excusing all of his moral missteps.

Don Lemon Tuesday on “CNN Tonight” accused Graham of supporting and defending Trump as a means of getting his religious agenda passed. He suggested “that you believe he is good, because he is good for what you think is right, that the ends justify the means. And if that’s the case, then poor people should be robbing banks.”

Graham denied the charge, insisting that Trump should be believed every time he denies doing anything wrong. 

On “shithole countries,” Graham defended Trump because “he said he didn’t say it,” but also because he’s a businessman.

“He’s accused of having an affair with Stormy Daniels,” Graham continued. “He said he didn’t.”

Graham said he doesn’t know it’s true that Trump gave Daniels a $130,000 payoff. 

Lemon continued to challenge Graham’s religious hypocrisy, asking the evangelical leader how he can excuse Trump’s extramarital affairs, his sexual exploits, and his bragging about sexual assault in the “Access Hollywood” tape.

“I believe that he’s a changed person and I’ve never seen anybody get attacked like he gets attacked,” Graham added, saying the 71-year old president is “maturing” in office.

Lemon wasn’t letting Graham off the hook.

“I don’t understand the cognitive dissonance of Christians and people who twist themselves into pretzels to try to make excuses for Donald Trump’s bad behavior,” an exasperated Lemon declared.

“He’s not the pastor of our country, Don,” Graham responded.

Lemon challenged Graham on his hypocrisy for calling out President Bill Clinton’s behavior but not President Trump’s.

“These alleged affairs, they’re alleged with Trump, didn’t happen while he was in office,” Graham told Lemon.

“This happened 11, 12, 13, 14 years ago,” Graham said, defending Trump. “And so, I think there is a big difference and not that we give anybody a pass, but we have to look at the timeline and that was before he was in office.”

That “big difference” Graham says, is between former Presidents Clinton and Kennedy, who had affairs in office, and Trump, who is not known to be having an affair currently.

Hat tip: Raw Story