Republicans overwhelmingly praise Trump as a good role model for kids

Just who would want Trump teaching children the ways of the world? Nearly three-quarters of Republicans

Published January 25, 2018 2:59PM (EST)

 (Getty/Mark Wilson)
(Getty/Mark Wilson)

There's a question that's on top of everyone's mind when it comes to President Donald Trump: Should he serve as a role model to children?

To most of the world, the answer would be "no." But to Republicans, it's a resounding "yes."

An overwhelming majority of Republicans — 72 percent — told a Quinnipiac University pollster that they believed Trump is a good role model for children. This despite a majority of white voters with no college degree — who, as Quinnipiac pointed out, are a "key element of the president’s base" — disagreeing with the sentiment.

Unless Republican respondents were trolling Quinnipiac pollsters — which some undoubtedly were — most Republicans think the president who went to a Boy Scouts Jamboree and spoke of a friend by alluding to past orgies on a yacht is someone they want their kids to emulate.

It's just the latest part of the great moral whitewashing of the party of so-called family values to embrace Trump. Earlier this week, Franklin Graham — a key figure in the evangelical Christianity movement and a close ally of Trump — gave the president a pass for allegedly cheating on his wife with porn star Stormy Daniels. Other movement leaders looked the other way in 2016, as woman after woman came forward with tales of sexual abuse and harassment by the then-candidate. Last May, Trump was invited to speak at Liberty University.

But Graham and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. are only following in the footsteps left behind by even those in the Republican establishment. Tere is no sin Trump could commit that is unforgivable. GOP leaders held their noses after Trump was inaugurated. Ostensibly, it's because he turned a page, as conservatives would say. But one of the steps to betterment is admitting mistakes — and even Trump's late campaign admission claim that he was indeed the man he bragged about being on the Howard Stern show was short-lived.


By Jeremy Binckes

MORE FROM Jeremy Binckes


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Boy Scouts Donald Trump Morality Poll Quinnipiac University Quinnipiac Poll Republicans Role Model