Chief Political Analyst David Brody: Syria Decision Could Be 'PR Disaster' for Trump with Evangelical Voters
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- Well, the fallout fromthis invasion is certainly
being felt in the nations Capitol.
Our chief politicalcorrespondent, David Brody, is
joining us now from Washington.
David, What do you hearfrom the people who are
talking about this, theevangelicals particularly?
- Well Pat, there acouple things going on.
First of all, one conservativeevangelical leader
close to the White House,just telling me this
morning that this is a crisisof Biblical proportions.
He talks about Russia, Iran,Syria, the conflux that
we have now going on nowin a very unstable part of
the world in the Middle East.
You put it all together andthere's a lot of concern.
And that has been prettymuch the solid concern
among evangelical leadersthroughout all of my discussions.
Now having said that, youhave the evangelicals,
so to speak, that 81 percentthat voted for Trump in 2016.
They seem to still be with him.
Are they happy with what'sgoing on right now in Syria?
No, but they're alsowilling, it seems, not just
anecdotally, but also onTwitter and some other
social media outlets thatI have been on and talking
to them, they seem willingto give this president
the benefit of the doubt for now.
Here's the problem: a PRdisaster is potentially
in the making and a visual one.
And you know Donald Trumpdoesn't like bad visuals.
And we could be getting badvisuals already obviously,
coming out of thatnortheastern part of Syria.
And that's not good for this president.
- I talked to SenatorGraham and he wants to be
on this show.
He was with me yesterday,we talked at length.
He is really extra excitedbecause he has been there
with the courage.
He's been to Erbil.
He's been to the Kirkukoilfields, he knows exactly
what's going on.
And he is very vocal againstthe president in this move.
- That's right, as a matterof fact he even came out
yesterday and said this moveputs the nation, the nation
America, at risk.
And also, puts this presidency at risk.
I mean, that's how bad this move could be.
Now, Lindsey Graham along with a Democrat,
Chris Van Hollen, andthe Senate are working on
a sanctions bill.
They introduced it,we'll see how that goes.
A source on the Hill justtalking to me this morning
and basically saying thatthey're not quite sure how
quickly that sanctionsbill against Turkey will go
in terms of, it has to getthrough the Senate, of course
the House.
And then, the thought is,the conventional wisdom is
that the president wouldnot sign a sanctions bill
against Turkey right now.
That he would veto it.
But this source, very closeto Lindsey Graham's office,
I can tell you this, says wait a minute.
The president actually couldsign that sanctions bill.
That is not off the table,so, this could get a little
more complicated as we move forward.
- Thank you, David, very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wantto show you a versed in the
Bible that I think is veryimportant in this regard.
I think, the presidenthas made a major mistake.
Now here's what Ecclesiastessays and I quote
"As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
"so a little follyoutweighs wisdom and honor."
Now the president isenjoying record support
among evangelicals.
And this thing, "As dead fliesgive perfume a bad smell,
so a little folly outweighswisdom and honor."
I hope our dear presidentwill take that verse to heart
because this thing is enfoldinginto a major humanitarian
tragedy and a major black eye for the
United States of Americain the Middle East
and throughout the world.