Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said Tuesday that evangelicals might have given President Donald Trump a "mulligan" on past indiscretions before winning the White House, but "evangelical support of the president is not unconditional."
"If this behavior were occurring today right now as president of the United States, I can assure you that my support and support of evangelical would be dissipating very rapidly," Perkins told CNN's Erin Burnett.
"But talking about something that occurred 10 years ago, among a number of things that occurred with this president prior to being president — myself, along with a lot of evangelicals, would not support him."
Perkins told a Politico podcast Tuesday that evangelicals gave Trump the "mulligan" because of his conservative platform and his selection of pro-life Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.
"Yes, evangelical conservatives gave him a 'mulligan,'" Perkins reiterated to Burnett later Tuesday. "They let him have a do-over.
"They said, 'We'll start fresh with you and give you a second chance.'"
Perkins said that evangelicals did not initially back Trump in 2016 and only did so because the alternative was Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"Only when we had a choice between Hillary Clinton and a guy who said: 'I am going to champion things you care about. I want a second chance. I want to do the right thing.'
"And, to date, he is doing the right thing."
But, still, "evangelical support of the president is not unconditional," Perkins said. "Let me be clear about that."
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