'No regrets': Evangelicals and other faith leaders still support Trump after deadly US Capitol attack

During a speech just before the violence broke out, Trump told his followers, "we’re going to have to fight much harder." “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he added hours before rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol threatening to kill Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers.On Tuesday, before leaving on a trip to South Texas, Trump said calls for his impeachment were divisive and his comments to supporters before the Capitol insurrection were "totally appropriate." None of the recent turmoil has eroded much of his support among evangelicals, experts and religious leaders said.Part of the reason is that, for the past four years, evangelical leaders have created an "echo chamber" where they blamed all of Trump's digressions and missteps on the Democratic Party or the mainstream media, said Sarah Posner, an investigative journalist and author of "Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump."After the deadly Capitol riot, which resulted in five deaths, evangelical leaders who supported him have largely continued to stand with him and deflect blame away from Trump, while those who have been critical of the president denounced the riots and blamed him for playing a role, she said. It corrodes the soul.”Jeffress said he would be discussing how Christians dismayed by the election results should respond to Biden in his sermon on Sunday.“If we are ever going to heal our country,” he said, “we must learn how to lay aside the anger and bitterness that are tearing our country apart without demanding that people surrender their deeply held convictions.”Trump has also courted support from Orthodox Jewish leaders, who applauded when he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem two years ago and the signing of peace accords with a handful of Mideast countries brokered by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. Joe Biden has been elected president."He added: "If Christians are people of truth, we ought to be the first to acknowledge reality."For other evangelicals, however, Trump's role in the Capitol attack will be minimized because many see him not just as an elected official but one anointed by God, Posner said."They feel he should remain president because God wanted him to be president," she said.Contributing: Deborah Berry, USA TODAY.Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.