On Air Force One with President Trump: 'Nobody's Done More for Christians or Evangelicals'

AIR FORCE ONE –  President Trump tells CBN News that he believes the so-called "blue wave" is dead when it comes to talk of Democrats dominating the midterm elections. The commander-in-chief spoke to CBN News in his private office aboard Air Force One on Wednesday as he began his big push toward the midterm election finish line.  

He is the energizer president, going from rally to rally with just days left before the midterm elections. The mainstream media have been saying for months a big blue Democrat wave is coming to wash over Trump and his party. But aboard Air Force One in his private office, the president told CBN News that he's not buying it.

"Well I think the blue wave is dead, frankly. And I think we're doing very well. It looks like we're going to win the Senate which is very important," President Trump said.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has already been spiking the football saying, "We will win. We will win."

Trump's reply? "Well I haven't seen her comments. I know that, look, she's been losing for a long time, so you know, she would like to win," he said. "She hasn't been doing too well. We'll see what happens. I think we're going to do very well in the House also."

Our trip aboard Air Force One was a virtual whirlwind. At our stop in Florida, we went backstage for a glimpse of the calm before the Trump campaign storm, and the president was in rare form Thursday night.

Here on the ground in Florida, the energy for President Trump and these Republican candidates is palpable and so is that, 'Drain the swamp' anger. And he is also dishing out the red meat to voters – he does it all the time at these rallies and so the question is civility or as his critics say, the lack thereof. It's something we discussed with him on Air Force One.

Critics accuse President Trump of hostility and incivility, so CBN News asked about what kind of role the president plays and whether he feels a responsibility in this.

"Well I think the media is extremely unfair. It has been from the time I announced and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm Republican, I'm conservative, and many other reasons, and probably me too," he said.

He specifically believes the media breeds dissension by unfairly covering events like his trip to the scene of the synagogue shooting.

"We had a great day. It was so respectful of the office of president and if you got home and if you read the New York Times or the Washington Post or if you saw any of the networks, you would say it was violence, it was, it was riots. I mean, it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen and everybody that was on that trip agreed with us. It was so wrong what they did. It was so phony," he said.

Some of his critics even call the president – whose daughter and son-in-law are Jewish – anti-Semitic and racist. He told CBN News he gets hit with lots of false labels.

"Well you know the word 'racist' is used about every Republican that's winning. Any time a Republican is leading they take out the 'R' word, the 'racist' word. And I'm not anti-immigrant at all. I'm all for people coming into the country legally and people based on merit, but when you see a caravan that's pouring up to our country with thousands of people…"

"Look, we're not going to let them come into our country. We have ten and we might even go up to 15,000 soldiers on our border. We are building a wall in its own way. We're putting up walls and barbed wire and when you look at what we're doing, they're just not coming into our country. They might as well go back down. But take a look at the violence that they've created down there, that level of, I mean these are not, these are not angels as you would say, these are not angels."

Regarding all those migrants, there's also been talk about tent cities.

"Well, we're going to build housing. Obviously, it has to be built very fast.  And we are going to give them better housing than many of them have. We're going to hold them, we're not going to release them. We're going to hold them until their deportation hearing goes and their asylum hearings."

That raises the issue of "catch and release" – a huge problem during the Obama years in which illegal immigrants were caught, told to show up to court down the road, and then released. Of course, many of them never showed up to court.

"No, we're not going to do catch and release. Catch and release is no good. Obama proved that," Trump said.

As issues like immigration get touchy at times for some, evangelicals continue to stick with this president. The question for Trump is will they do so even though he's not on the ballot next Tuesday.

"Well they're going to show up for me because nobody's done more for Christians or evangelicals or frankly religion than I have. You've seen all the things that we've passed including the Johnson Amendment and so many things we've nullified. Nobody's done more than we have. Mexico City, take a look at that. Things that frankly until Ronald Reagan, nobody did anything. So, I know they're very happy with me. We've seen they're very happy. The question is whether or not they're going to go out and vote when I'm not running. I have no doubt they're going to be there in '20. I hope they're going to be there now because it'll be a lot easier if they are, a lot better."

Many Christians are praying for President Trump and Mike Pence – they hear about it all the time. CBN News asked, "How has that moved you because a lot of people think the empathy factor with you as president is on the low end if you will."

Trump replied, "I don't think they do think that. I think they think it's on the high end. Well maybe the critics say it because they're doing anything to get us all out of office. No, I think we've had tremendous support in the form of prayer and I get it all the time, 'I'm praying for you, Mr. President. I'm praying for you.' We, I hear it so much. It's nice and it's great to see it and great to hear it but all the time people are coming up to me and they're saying, 'Mr. President, I'm praying for you.' It's very nice."

And while President Trump appreciates the prayers, he will be looking for votes to carry him and his party over the finish line next week.