From the New York Times, a forceful defense from the fbi under attack by the gop. The democratic memo bus republican charges. We will turn to that in 45 minutes. Inside todays New York Times, and donald trump, evangelicals have found the president. David brody joins us in the studio. Thanks for joining us. Guest thanks for having me. Host tell us about your book and why evangelicals trust donald trump. Guest do we have six or seven hours because there is a lot to unpack . I think there is a culture. They see a culture warrior and donald trump. I know that sounds crazy to folks, but its true. Donald trump is a guy that paints in bold absolutes. When you put the two together, they like the fact that he is a fighter. He is fighting for traditional judeochristian principles, which is shocking to many, but the truth of matter is that it shows that god has a sense of humor for sure because he, as in god, will send evangelicals donald trump of all people for judeochristian values. As we dig deeper into the book, when youre born in 1976 and you are 71 today, he grew up in a different time in america and those judeochristian values are different than host today. Ho today. Host how could evangelical leaders go behind trump . Picture of a a mentally unstable reckless president who is reckless against all humanity except white people with modest incomes and out of date values. After interviewing schools of evangelical leaders, i have developed a different perspective. Guest in the book, there are some of the different stories of a personal relationship that donald trump has with these evangelical leaders, and more compassionate side they have specifically seem. Normally politicians want to show you the more compassionate side in public. Donald trump is the exact opposite. He does not want you necessarily to see that side. Its a much more private side. It comes from his faith roots and we can talk about that in a moment. They have seen that side and there are stories in the book. Theres this one book story of tony perkins from the Family Research council, donald trump, and mike pence and a car. It was louisiana august twice 16 during the flooding. As they are riding along and they are seeing the devastation, he is blown away by how Franklin Graham has done all this work in louisiana. He looks at Franklin Graham and says i need to give your ministry some money. The bottom line is that he writes a hefty sixfigure check to samaritans purse, but before he can go to samaritans purse, Franklin Graham says give it to tonys church. No cameras around. Donald trump has this other side to him. Yes, he wrote a check and a lot of folks might say he wrote a check. For donald, thats part of his compassionate side. Host the book, the faith of so letstrump, drill down aspects of the book. You write a lot about Norman Vincent peel. You say the following, he was one of trumps mentors and friends. The selfhelp aisle of your bookstore may not exist without him pioneering the industry and he was a theological simpleton at best and at worst theological fraud, and yet he had a profound influence on donald trump. Guest he did. When donald trump want to Norman Vincent peels church, it was later in his life. It was the power of positive thinking. That attracted donald trump to e wasNorman Vincent peal preaching. Later on oret i wouldnt say regret, but at least he realized he wanted to speak more about jesus plus nothing and it got more into the power of positive thinking. There was a bit of regret on his part. On Donald Trumps golf course in california, i had a conversation with him about Norman Vincent peale. He said he was the greatest or tour that he has ever seen. We have seen that in donald trump today not necessarily in the twitter feed, but the campaign rallies. By that, he is able to captivate an audience and stay positive. Everything is positive. We are going to do this, we are going to get it done. Norman Vincent Peale is very much a positive influence. Host you write, while donald trump has opted to vigo and believes that he can get any job done, he does not leave god out of the equation. He knows god is bigger and better than him declaring to me, god is the ultimate. Guest it was september 20 15, 3 month or so after he declared his can see for presidency of the United States. I remember it vividly. And hein los angeles looked around at the Pacific Ocean and said god is the ultimate. He built all this and god is the ultimate builder. That is what he was talking about. This you say it like mike pence or an evangelical christian who is going to church for 30 years in that evangelical way . , no he doesnt. No, he doesnt. A lot of people get lost in the verbiage of how donald trump speaks and his new york personality. They dont see the underside of what really going on. That is what this book explores and we found some interesting anecdotes and conclusions. Host does he go to church regularly . Guest i would say this. You have to ask him about that because im not with him every single sunday. Maybe he is doing things privately. As president now, hes not doing anything privately. What we know and want again im going to be clear that this book is not an apologetics book for donald trump. When i talk about Church Attendance, im not defending him about going to church are not going to church, but i do want to be clear that god does not look at our Church Attendance record when he gets to heaven. He is looking about a personal relationship with him with a capital h. Does that let donald trump off the hook for not going to church . Absolutely not because god wants us to be in community with fellow believers. Host while the Mainstream Media was looking at past blemishes, they are missing the cultural link they had with the past. It was a solid union made possible by two willing aicipants megabillionaire and evangelicals hoping to recount rekindle the culture they once knew. Explain. Guest when you hear donald trump talk about general patton and the wonderful times in the 1950s, what he means by that remember 1946 is when he grew up. He remembers her time a time when there was bible reading in school and prayer in school. That was stripped away in the early 1960s by the Supreme Court. You put all that together and this is an oldfashioned type guy. Americabers a time in where he believes it was a lot more patriotic back then than it is today. Evangelical christians see culture slipping away in the last 10 years or so. They are frustrated and willing to take a chance and they took a chance on donald trump. Host our guest is david brody. His essay is in the New York Times. The book is called the faith of donald j. Trump. 202 is the area code. For republicans and 202 7488000 for democrats. You talked about the conversation he had with freight alliance frank wants. Heres the next it. [video clip] im protestant. Im presbyterian. I go to church and i love god and i love my church. Lee great Norman Vincent pea was my pastor. The power of positive thinking. He would give a sermon and you would never want to leave. Sometimes we have sermons and every time we think about leaving a little early even though we are christian. Wouldrman Vincent Peale give a sermon. Im telling you that i still remember his sermons. It was unbelievable. Realhe would do is bring life situations, modernday situations and to the sermon. And you can listen to him all day long. When you left the church, you were disappointed was over. He was the greatest guy. He passed away, but he was great. He wrote the power of positive thinking, which is a great book. Have you ever asked god for forgiveness . [laughter] im not sure i have. I try to do a better job from there. I dont think so. If i do something wrong, i think i just try to make it right. Host david brody, that was an extraordinary exchange and it continues to come back to you and others as you research donald trump. Guest i was there for that event in the media was blown away. They said that was the end of his candidacy. I guess it wasnt. There is so much to impact in that statement unpack and that statement. Let me add that roughly a month and a half that was in mid july or so. In late september, i interviewed donald trump once again on that golf course and asked him about the forgiveness line. He said i do ask for forgiveness. I do it with communion and other different ways. He doesnt know how to express it, but he did say to me and you can google it. Put david brody and donald trump forgiveness and you will see the clip come up. He does say it. That wasnt necessarily a moment that was maybe relatively enjoyable for him, but having said that, it was authentically donald trump. I think thats an important point to point out. What i mean by that is that donald trump cannot pander a lot of people think he is pandering to evangelicals. He would not know how to pander to evangelicals. I remember in the book and at 1 april 2011 interview, ive done 16 or 17 interviews with donald trump. That first interview i asked him about his Church Attendance and he said i go to church on easter and christmas and maybe a couple sundays. I thought to myself im interviewing him for the christian broadcast network. Probably not the best answer for the christian broadcast network. Of the christian broadcast network, he was not going to give me some line about how saintly he is when he comes to Church Attendance. That is pretty authentic and thats part of the reason why got elected because of that authenticity. It can get him in trouble, but it also got him elected president of the United States. Host mike is joining us from South Carolina, democrats line. Good morning. Caller i dont know if this guy is really serious or if he is a comedian. Donald trump is not a positive person. He belittles, attacks, and criticizes people. He uses extremely crude light which frequently. He has no moral compass that he shows. He criticizes people because of where they were born, what they believe. I just think this is the most comical thing i have heard. Is ordont see that he models the kind of moral behavior that we want. Look at his life and the way he has interacted with women, the way he was so proud on the bus to talk about how he approaches women. I dont see this private kind of Christian Faith or anything like that. Guest not the first time we have heard that. Once again, the title of the book is the faith of donald trump not the sainthood of donald trump. I know that title is provocative and there is a lot implied there, but i will say this. It could be called the faith journey of donald trump or the world you faith journey of donald trump, but that does not make a great title. It is not the sainthood of donald trump you. For everyone out there, this is not an apologetics book of donald trump. We go through the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. Do we harp on it . No, but we bring it up. One of the main takeaways from the book is that he is definitely on a spiritual voyage like we all are. In the last few years from what our research and reporting says in this book, and we are talking about 100 folks or so that we interviewed are not just close to him but have also been critics of his as well have come to realize a different side of him, but went than that, they. Ave seen some growth not just behind the scenes, but we can talk about that publicly as well. Theres a little bit more than meets the eye here. I think mike has got some good points for sure, but i also think if you read the book, you will see that this is not an apologetics book at all. Host i want to come back to the book and just a moment, but they focus on reverend billy graham. He will lie in honor and u. S. Capitol, the first time that has been according to a private citizen since rosa parks. He died at the age of 99. What is his legacy . Guest theres so much to unpack with billy graham. I will say this. His legacy is one of likability, civility, bipartisanship offer jesus christ. In other words, he was able to preach the gospel of jesus christ unashamedly but do it in a way that was able to bring others into listen to the message. Very difficult nowadays. He was able to do it. He was in a different time in america for sure, but i think civility and bipartisanship is all part of that legacy and theres so much to unpack. Host he met and counsel every president since harry truman. He was particularly close to richard nixon, george h. W. Bush, and barack obama. Guest in 2013 as we talk about the book, donald trump was invited to his 95th birthday party. Also in the book, i actually asked President Trump about billy graham specifically. His father was a huge fan of billy graham. Donald trump remembers watching with his father in the 1950s those crusades and sermons and everything whether it be television or radio. Him and his father would watch billy graham sermons back then. Billy graham was touching young donald trump back in the day, which i thought was interesting. His father went to one of the new york crusade back in the day. Host we will have coverage of his body arriving in washington, d. C. And the ceremony inside the rotunda of the u. S. Capital that will take place on wednesday and thursday. Funeral services scheduled friday for billy graham who died last week at the age of 99. Andrew is joining us from alexandria, virginia. Good morning. Caller first, love cspan. Mr. Brodie, thank you for writing this book. As a christian, i want to add the following because i support president donald trump. 2016,e first announced in how can i get involved and help get this man elected . Heres why. Look at what he did with his business. He built this tremendously successful business. Then i listened to him at Liberty University, a christian man. I used to be in construction so he has rough language, but when you look at what he has accomplished and you look at his children, i was so impressed at his children. Jerry falwell and Jeff Sessions an endorsed him. You look beneath the surface and thats what i looked at. I dont care about his wrestling with. I look at what he has accomplished. Thank you for what you are doing. Guest for sure. There is the twitter donald trump and then there is the behindthescenes donald trump. We try to explain that here. I also think its important to understand that and this is the underlying theme of the book. Grace abounds. What i mean by that is that gods grace is unlimited. Thats right. Donald trump and anyone who turns to jesus can be saved until you breathe your last breath. He wants everyone to be with him in heaven. Yes, donald trump. It doesnt matter if you have one sense or . 30 or a million since. In or 30 sins. You can be saved by grace and they are fortinet grace to the president. Host harvey is joining us from indiana. Good morning, harvey. Caller thank you for taking my call. I listened to mr. Brody. With all due respect, just imagine for a second that donald trump has a son. He has three sons and he has a son that underage at like 13 years old. You talk about bullying and the way that donald trump talks about people and thousands of people, if this is what the evangelical faith is all about, god bless you. I think this judgment is just trying to sell his book. Host thank you. We will get a response. Guest a couple Different Things. All, its definitely not about selling a book because i had 17 interviews with the president of the United States so im standing to talk about it. I think people need to understand that this is a guy that is a work in progress for sure. He is someone that is not a choir boy and he understands that. People understand that. I will say this. Evangelicals are looking and voting in the macro. This is what i mean by that. The understand that president , a man or woman doesnt matter, they are sinful. They are going to fall. That person will be majorly flawed. The other question to flawed candidates. In this case it was donald trump and Hillary Clinton. What do you do with that . You vote in the macro. In other words, they are saying we believe the moral choice here and we are doing the morally right thing to vote for weatherby judges or the life issue of the moral macro society issues. That is how they get to donald trump. Host donald trump sees mike pence as a spiritual person and that translates into a belief that its good to be around people like that. Chumps christianity unlike other elements of his life and career does not play out in a flashy way. Guest true. He grew up in a mainline Presbyterian Church background. We go into that in the first part of the book. Basically his father was lutheran german. Thats the roots on his father sides. On his mothers side is that scottish presbyterian braveheart , that john knox protestantism of scotland that came to that area. That is where his mom is from. You see all that and donald trump. That is the dna of donald trump. I want to point out that this book, you need to understand that if people would read the book, they would understand that this is a deep dive and well researched book by my coauthor. He did a lot of research in this book to point out not just that religious dna that shaped donald trump, but the behindthescenes that a lot of people dont know. The way i like to say in television terms is that if you second sound bite and television, we have heard 12 seconds of the soundbite. That is twitter and russia and all the stuff that have been issues for the president. This book is the other 18 seconds or at least other half that you can get the full picture. Walter cronkite said that in seeking the truth, you want to have both sides of the story. This is the other side of the story. Host valerie is next from ohio on the republican line with author and reporter david brody. Caller good morning. Thank you. This is the first time i have been on. I wanted to say that im very happy for billy graham right now. Its his best crusade ever. Hes very happy right now. I think donald trump is a great man. I think you can tell a great man by his children. Look at his children. I just think hes