Franklin Graham Defends President Trump, Slams Satan for Charlottesville Chaos - CBN News

Franklin Graham Defends President Trump, Slams Satan for Charlottesville Chaos

Aug. 15, 2017 CBN News

Franklin Graham defended Donald Trump from critics that placed blame on him for the deadly riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, that occurred over the weekend. 

Graham instead said that the blame is on Satan. 

The driver James Alex Fields Jr., 20, an alleged Nazi sympathizer, plowed a car into a crowd of activists in Charlottesville, and ended up killing one person and injuring 19. 

CNN is painting the picture of President Trump being insincere when he condemned the riots. 

"Some heard the diluted words of a man forced to bow to media pressure, while others found winking encouragement in between the lines," reporter AJ Willingham from CNN.

"When he says 'all sides,' they hear vindication," the reporter insinuated about the white supremacists. 

Franklin Graham condemned the media's blame game, stating on Facebook: 

"Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in #Charlottesville, VA. That's absurd. What about the politicians such as the city council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924, regardless of the possible repercussions? How about the city politicians who issued the permit for the lawful demonstration to defend the statue? And why didn't the mayor or the governor see that a powder keg was about to explode and stop it before it got started?" 

"Instead they want to blame President Donald J. Trump for everything. Really, this boils down to evil in people's hearts. Satan is behind it all. He wants division, he wants unrest, he wants violence and hatred. He's the enemy of peace and unity. I denounce bigotry and racism of every form, be it black, white or any other. My prayer is that our nation will come together. We are stronger together, and our answers lie in turning to God," Graham added.

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Col., says it is the time to place blame on Trump. 

"This isn't a time for innuendo or to allow room to be read between the lines. This is a time to lay blame," said Gardner on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.

"This president has done an incredible job of naming terrorism around the globe as evil," he continued. "He has said and called it out time and time again. And this president needs to do exactly that today," he added. 

Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer also said on the same program that Trump courted white supremacists in his presidential campaign which caused them to start acting out publicly. 

"Look at the intentional courting both, on the one hand, of all these white supremacists, white nationalist groups like that, anti-Semitic groups," Signer said. "And then look on the other hand, the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all those different efforts."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the attack 'meets the definition of terrorism in our statute.' 

Vice President Mike Pence also denounced white supremacists on Sunday. 

 "These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms," he said.