Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) made an impassioned plea Friday to evangelical voters still on the fence about rallying behind Donald Trump.
“We don’t get a do-over,” Bachmann told TPM in a brief interview at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. “Because, four years from now, if Hillary Clinton is in, the demographics will have so changed in the country, because what she and Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy going back to 1965 have intentionally tried to do is bring in to the United States people who don’t necessarily agreed with constitutional Republic government.”
“They agree with socialism and economic Marxism,” Bachmann said. “And that’s why our country is moving towards socialism and economic Marxism,” she continued.
The Values Voter Summit is an annual conference for religious conservatives sponsored by FRC Action, the political arm of the Family Research Council. Trump was scheduled to address the conference Friday.
Bachmann cited as proof that Trump can be trusted by evangelical voters his promise to nominate to the Supreme Court anti-abortion justices; his vow to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which says churches and other charitable organizations must avoid partisan politics to maintain their tax-exempt status; and his willingness to say, “Merry Christmas.”
“This is a man who has common sense, 1950s sensibilities, about the greatness of the United States. And he’s not ashamed of the Christian faith,” Bachmann said. “Believers need to recognize that they could be very comfortable with Donald Trump. He has the persona of being a glamorous person, but he also is very common sense individual who came up from Jamaica Queens, New York, and he gets common sense America.”
Bachmann argued, “All of our chips are on the line right now.”
“All these Hollywood types say they’re going to leave the United States if Donald Trump wins,” Bachmann said. “Where are we going to go? Where are we as believers going to go? You tell me, where in the world is there any country that is a constitutional Republic, any functioning country? There isn’t one.”
She called the United States a “magnificent gift that was based upon a Judeo-Christian ethic.”
“And if believers can’t contend now, then the problem will be believers. Believers need to understand, we are the voting bloc that’s actually going to win the race,” she said. “There are more believers in this country who are voters, who can win this race, and all it takes is for them to not only getting out and vote, but getting their sphere of influence to vote: their families, their congregation. This is it.”
