Corey Lewandowski: Faith Played a Big Part in Trump Campaign for President
Watch the included clip for more from Lewandowski on Trump and evangelicals.
WASHINGTON – Corey Lewandowski, the former Trump campaign manager, says faith played an important role in the 2016 election and was a major source of strength and comfort for then-presidential candidate Trump and his team.
In an interview with CBN News, Lewandowski relayed insider stories from the campaign trail that are detailed in his new book, Let Trump Be Trump (co-authored by David Bossie).
"When we started the campaign, all the pundits told us, 'Don't try and win Iowa because those evangelicals will never support you, Mr. Trump.' And who came out early for us? People like Jerry Falwell, Jr. of Liberty University," Lewandowski said.
Lewandowski was no longer with the campaign but recalls when the Access Hollywood tape surfaced, showing Trump making lewd sexual comments about women. He reached out to Falwell for advice.
"You had to look into your faith for that," Lewandowski explained. "I called Jerry Falwell Jr. and I write about it in the book: 'Jerry, I've got to go on TV in five minutes. What do I do?' and he said, 'Corey, my father, Jerry Falwell, Sr., would always say, 'We're not voting for a Sunday school teacher. We're voting for the leader of the free world and no man is perfect but we have to look at it in the totality.' And that's exactly what the American people saw."
Full transcription below:
Jenna Browder: "President Trump, he has tremendous support with evangelicals. I'm wondering, you know when you were on the campaign trail, were there any conversations between the two of you about how you would court this block of voters?"
Corey Lewandowski: "When you think about Iowa, a state that has a large evangelical population, when we started the campaign, all the pundits told us, 'don't try and win Iowa because those evangelicals will never support you, Mr. Trump.' And who came out early for us? People like Jerry Falwell, Jr. of Liberty University, the great Paula White, the Reverend Paula White, so many other pastors came and said, 'You want to judge a man and his faith? Look at his children.' And when you look at the Trump kids, and we heard this time and time again, the grown children, all of the children, these are kids who have grown up with privilege but are down to earth. They are magnanimous. They are gracious. They are friendly. They have no airs about them whatsoever. They work hard every day on that campaign. And many, many people told us they judge the President, who has faults like everybody, on how well his children were raised. They don't smoke. They don't drink. You never read about them in the tabloids. They're never in trouble. That is a sign of the man and his faith and faith played a big part in the campaign. Whether it was the Access Hollywood tape, right, that was the Billy Bush tape. We talked about it a lot in the book and the impact that that had and those women who came forward who accused him of things. You had to look into your faith for that. And I called Jerry Falwell Jr. and I write about it in the book: 'Jerry, I've got to go on TV in five minutes. What do I do?' and he said, 'Corey, my father, Jerry Falwell, Sr., would always say, 'We're not voting for a Sunday school teacher. We're voting for the leader of the free world and no man is perfect but we have to look at it in the totality.' And that's exactly what the American people saw. They saw a man who is genuine, who has faults. Everybody has faults. President Trump doesn't run from those. He embraces them. He lets people litigate if it was either going to be Donald Trump as our president or crooked Hillary and the American people stepped forward and they said, 'We want a fighter for us.' So faith is so important."