(CNN) — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said she believes God wanted President Donald Trump to win the 2016 election, the Christian Broadcasting Network reported on Wednesday.
“I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that’s why he’s there,” Sanders told CBN’s David Brody and Jennifer Wishon, according to a transcript of the interview provided by CBN.
“I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about,” Sanders added.
When asked about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling Trump’s proposed wall along the US southern border “immoral,” Sanders told CBN, “The idea that protecting the people of your country, which is the fundamental duty of being president of the United States, would in some way be immoral is a ridiculous charge.”
The government partially shut down for more than a month — the longest shutdown in US history — after Trump demanded $5.7 billion for new border wall funding and Democrats, who control the House, refused to approve the funds. Pelosi has declared Trump will receive “nothing for the wall.”
Sanders also reassured CBN that Trump’s announcement that he would withdraw the US military from Syria would not endanger Christians in the area.
“Look, the President’s made clear that we support Christians, that we support the Kurds,” Sanders said, adding the President has “made that clear to Turkey.”
Earlier this month, Trump threatened to “devastate” Turkey’s economy if it attacked the Kurds in Syria — a stark threat toward an ally in the region that has partnered with the US in the fight against ISIS. Turkey views some Kurdish groups in the region as terrorist organizations and Kurds make up the majority of US-allied fighters operating in Syria in the civil war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“The idea that the President is just stepping away and ignoring any potential problem doesn’t understand the fundamental decision that he’s made,” Sanders said.
When asked why there aren’t daily White House briefings and how the White House gets its message out without them, Sanders said, “The President himself engages with the media more than any president has in history. He’s the most accessible, and I think the White House in general is the most accessible, when it comes to the media.”
“There’s certainly no desire by our team and certainly by the President to withhold information,” Sanders said.
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