Trump tells a conference call of anti-LGBT+ pastors to pray for his re-election and forget about coronavirus
Donald Trump (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Donald Trump has told a group of anti-LGBT+ pastors to forget about the coronavirus pandemic and to instead pray that he is re-elected in November.
The president made the comments during a conference call last Friday that was organised by the Family Research Council (FRC), which has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
While the call was organised for Trump and Mike Pence to talk with evangelical pastors about the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump instead used the time to urge the evangelical pastors to vote for him.
He began his contribution to the call by thanking the pastors for praying for the sick.
Donald Trump thanked pastors for praying for those affected by coronavirus, and then asked them to pray that he gets re-elected.
“You do such an incredible job. You’re very inspiration people, and I’m with you all the way,” he said, according to Right Wing Watch.
However, he quickly moved on to November’s election, and bemoaned news stations for focusing on the pandemic instead of him.
It’s just going to be, it’s a big date, Nov. 3 — that’s going to be one of the biggest dates in the history of religion, as far as I’m concerned.
“We have a very, very big election coming up, especially if you’re evangelical – if you’re evangelical, if you’re Christian, if you’re, frankly, almost any faith,” he said.
“We have people on the other side that are against a lot of the things we all stand for,” Trump added.
“It’s just going to be, it’s a big date, Nov. 3 — that’s going to be one of the biggest dates in the history of religion, as far as I’m concerned.
The United States has since become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, I want you to be, we have to keep aware of that, ’cause as we fight this, people are forgetting about anything else.
“You turn on the news, and all you see is the coronavirus or whatever,” he said. He then went on to claim that “some people” call COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus”, a term Trump himself has used to refer to the coronavirus.
“But the virus, that’s all you see. You don’t see anything else,” he said.
Since Trump made his comments, the United States has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. More people have now been diagnosed with the virus there than in China and Italy.
The Republican president has repeatedly come under fire for his handling of the pandemic.
