Hello there. I'm Chuck Todd and welcome to another episode of Meet the Press Reports,

where each week we take one issue and dive deep into it.

This week, it's evangelicals.

When Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015, a big reason campaign strategist at the time doubted he could actually win the nomination was that they did not see how

an adulterous, twice divorce, casino-owning reality TV star could win over the most conservative part of the

Republican Party's base, white evangelicals. But from the beginning, Trump got strong support

from these values voters and easily cleared the field. He went on to win 77% of the evangelical vote

in 2016, and he did even better four years later, winning 84% against Joe Biden.

It was clear then that evangelical support for Donald Trump was not an aberration, but an

affirmation. There are many evangelicals who want to move on from Donald Trump, those that are

concerned that the devotional has taken a back seat to the political, and that the very term

evangelical has lost its religious meeting to the political, and that the very term evangelical

has lost its religious meeting altogether. But they are in the minority. In some churches now,

it's commonplace to hear anti-mass tirades and vaccine disinformation. Nearly half of pastors have reported

hearing parishioners repeating conspiracy theories. And three and five white evangelicals believe the 2020

election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump. Our own Ann Thompson went to Tennessee

recently to see how one city is figuring out what it means to be an evangelical today.

Under this flag-painted roof, religion and politics mix.

I want Trump to come back sooner than later, but you know who would be a lot better than

Trump coming back?

Jesus coming back.

With gusto.

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