travel in the country asking people to pursue the common good because that is what our faith calls us to. care for all people in all situations and not find our allegiance to one political party. good for themmon >> "washington journal" continues. host: we're joined by tony perkins, president of the family research council to talk about religion and 2018. we want to start by asking about the past weekend and your involvement in the release of pastor brunson from turkey. how were you involved? guest: good to see you again. i was there in my role as a commissioner on the u.s. commission on international religious freedom. i was asked to be there for the

hearing for pastor brunson. i met with him the night before. there was a lot of anxiety. he was fearful he was went to be placed back into prison the next day. e had been on house arrest since july 25. host: why? guest: he was charged after the 2016 onempt in president erdogan. trumped up charges. the media speculates he was being used as a gambit. erdogan was upset that the u.s. did not weigh in immediately after the coup attempt and come to is a. there is no -- to his aid. submitted. evidence charges were based on hearsay. the witnesses who provided that this,y, so and so said

that was the basis of the charges, basically they recanted their stories. what was clear was that the economic pressure, the sanctions, the terrace that the administration -- t ariffs that the administration had put in place forced them to find a way out. two yearsnced him to and one month, giving him credit for what he served. that left a year. arrangements were made to get a military flight to get him out of the country immediately and back to the u.s. host: you were there on friday not certain at all. guest: we had no idea. the state department had no idea. the administration has been working on this. i spoke to the president before

i left last week. i took a letter of encouragement from the president to pastor brunson. the state department has worked through various scenarios as to what their response would be to the decision. nobody knew if he was going to go back to jail. when the jail door opened, they turned a blind eye, and we immediately worked to get him out of the country. host: have you been to turkey before? guest: i had not. i have been on the commission since may. another one of my fellow commissioners has been tracking this case. she was out of the country, so i was asked to go. we are showing video of you in the ove oval office with the president of the weekend. you prayed with the present. pastor brunson prayed with the present. this is a great man.

he and his wife are wonderful people. he said we pray for the president every day. i want to thank the president for not for getting me. would it be appropriate for me to pray for the president? i said absolutely. that is what he did. we landed a few minutes before noon at anders air force base. shortly thereafter, he was at the white house with the president. host: an editorial in the financial times has this title, a chance for turkey and america to rebuild ties. this clearly removes a major obstacle. turkey has been an important nato ally. there are other issues at play. the question has to be does turkey want to be a strong nato ally country? they are working with russians for a missile-defense

system. there are multiple factors. i am concerned about the whole idea of justice. as i said in the courtroom, zmir, an hour from i turkey, a gymnasium converted into a courtroom. host: for this specific purpose? it was converted two years ago after the coup attempt so they could do mass prosecutions at one time. the defendants sit in a lot of areas that could contain up to 100 people. they move them all through at the time. the hearsay evidence that was presented against pastor brunson , as a former police officer, i cannot have even gotten a search warrant based on what they presented. he was held for two years based on that.

turkey has a long way to go. under erdogan, they have made some moves that are troubling. i hope this reset of this relationship or removing this obstacle can reengage those relationships where america might be a vote to bring them along. we are still very concerned at the commission on international religious freedom about the abuse of religious expression. they remain a tear to country on our list of concern -- tier two country on our list of concern. host: moving on to politics here with tony perkins. evangelical voters, (202) 748-8000. all others (202) 748-8001. we saw the scene with pastor brunson praying with president trump. 80% of evangelicals in 2016 supported the president at the polls.

would you think it looks like for evangelical support 2018? guest: it hasn't really changed. what is amazing is this presidentwould you think it looe for evangelical support has solt support. george barna, the guru in terms polling evangelicals, the socially active, governmentally engaged evangelicals are at about 89% in support of the president. when you look at his policies, evidence with bringing home and evangelical pastor. he is not the only one. this is the 18th or 19th president we have brought -- prisoner we have brought home. has advancedow he religious freedom in the country domestically. you look at how he has advanced a pro-life agenda. fortwo top issues evangelicals and 2016 remain at

the top list of their concerns are the courts because the have targeted things have targeted things evangelicals and conservatives care about. you look at public prayer, public expression of faith, the 10 commandments, the issue of life and marriage, those things were not decided by legislative bodies but by the courts. courts are at the top of the list. this president has been systematically addressing those issues. pastorur earlier guest doug pagitt is leading vote common good, trying to bring out democrats. he raised the issue of immigration, detaining families at the border. how important is an issue for evangelicals? guest: it is an issue with evangelicals. it is a tough issue. i have met with the president about it. i have met with the attorney general to discuss this issue

back when families were being detained. i said would have to figure out a better way to do this. we have, but it is still a problem. our borders are a problem. congress needs to take the lead. i have been at this post for 15 years. this can has been kicked down the road each time. it is a tough political issue, but it is an issue we must address. host: let's get to the calls. we have vincent in oklahoma. go ahead. caller: good morning, tony, how are you doing? guest: i am doing great. how are you doing? for sin. am voting host: we say hello to stephen in connecticut. caller: hello. thank you for taking my phone call. i don't know if i agree with everything with tony. i agree with a lot of christian

tenets, taking care of orphans, the penniless. i want to roll back into this voter discussion and getting out the vote and what his experiences have been like. my experiences, we can this canvas -- schools in town. it is really difficult. hispanic neighborhoods don't really vote. this is like the first year after eight hard efforts to get out the vote that i see hispanic neighborhoods starting to come around. this is anecdotal. lead themen really family and a lot of these neighborhoods? that's a good observation, stephen. in many areas, especially as you see single moms and absent

fathers, women are leaving their homes. -- leading the homes. single moms, their issues are about their kids. they want hope for the future. they want to see them succeed. they need opportunities. voting is part of that. i encourage everyone to participate, especially if you have traveled overseas and realize how few people on the face of this planet have the opportunity we have in america and consider the price people have paid to give us this freedom. we can disagree openly and argue in public, and yet we can do so, hopefully we will return to more civility, but safely. few places in the world have that. the vote is essential to that. in thee were talking previous segment about people that don't vote. what is the family research council's role in that?

we have an arm that is involved in that. we have two bus tours around the country. registration,ter but encouraging people to get out to vote. where need to be informed and wheres stand the candidates stand. people think the party platforms are not important, but they follow these platforms 80% of the time. host: here is michelle in atlanta. caller: good morning. first and foremost, i am

iangelical black woman, and would never support anyone in that republican party. you have the grand wizard of the klan who is up in the white house and wants to do in all african americans and latinos. we have been registering stacey abrams. georgia this thug in disenfranchise black people. black people are going to come voteike cockroaches and house.mp out that white guest: i certainly respect michelle's opinion. 8% of themp had about

african-american vote in 2016. it is not high. it is below normal. shows that has grown enormously. the lowest unemployment rate 50 years. lowest unemployment rate for african americans in history. if you look at the economy, the economy is forward. freedom andamental moving forward. , whenional opportunity people look at his policies, the beyond the tweets, they realize this administration is moving in the right direction. host: looking at june 2016 in whitelack protestant 8%,

55%.elical the fine for us what makes that'sgelical. guest: a good question. host: how do you define it? guest: we mentioned george barnum. there's about 10 points he goes through. one who has confessed faith in jesus christ, accepting forgiveness, and seeking to live life life -- their

bible.ng to the basically the bible gives guidance to everything we do. we vote according to those biblical tenets. evangelical vote is about a third of the vote. sage-con is about 10%. host: there's a wide range. guest: no question. unusual in this last election. 2016. guest: yes. the president solidified that support. what was behind that is the more trumpdia pummel president

paintinge him -- i'm with a broad brush -- it looks gratuitous. evangelicals say they don't completely agree with skycam but he is beinggratuitous. attacked -- with this guy, but he is being attacked by the same people that attacked me. the more he is attacked, the comesemented that support from evangelicals. host: let's get to donnie. caller: hello. you took my call. i am going to be honest with you. i am pentecostal.

i don't know what you all believe. i am going to tell you one thing. that's what my bible tells me. , or donaldicals trump, the way he has treated these women, says things he wants to say. i tell you what, when this life is over, we are going to come before the lord. when we die, we leave this world. we are going to stand before judgment and be judged accordingly. i don't know what you believe in. if you don't tell donald trump what he has done to america. host: the will you go. guest: i like to ask him a question. the choice was between donald trump and hillary clinton. supportedinton openly policies that were antithetical to christian beliefs.

what were we to do? voting is the same as supporting hillary clinton. i understand that mindset. i think it is a narrow, wrong viewpoint. especially given what we have seen in the last two years. i did not support donald trump in the primary for the very reason the caller mentioned. when it came to a choice between hillary clinton and donald trump, i had donald trump who wrapped himself in the republican party platform, the most conservative platform in party history. i wrote a large portion of it. he had mike pence, a strong evangelical as his running mate. he put out a list of conservative justices he would've appointed to the supreme court. between that and hillary

clinton, it is no-brainer. we supported him. we said we said we're going to give you a chance. we don't agree with what you are going to do in the past. we think your lifestyle is anathema when it comes to the standards and values we embrace, but here is the choice. opportunity, and he has not disappointed us. when you look at what he has done. our support for him is not unconditional. if he continues to keep his promises and not revert back to the activity he is alleged to have done before, he will have our support. if that changes, so will our support. host: let's hear from james in baltimore on our evangelical line. caller: thank you for taking my call. like an sounds republican evangelical. what is the last time he supported any democrats? unless he is condemning all

democrats of not being worthy of being called evangelicals. he sounds like one of those republicans where the ends justify the means. if this man does this for me, i don't care what he does. if he cuts taxes, i don't care what he does. i've got mine, don't care about yours. what has hillary done so that? [indiscernible] host: all right. guest: i supported a democrat in the last election. dan lipinski. host: congressional race. guest: he is a democrat. pro-life. he embraces the values evangelicals embrace. it does not matter. if you carry the title democrat but have these values, we will support you. host: jim, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you?

host: fine, thank you. caller: i consider myself a christian, and one of the most important tenets of faith is we believe our personal faith is important to us. the difference here is that apparently his personal faith is he believes others must adhere to. we cannot live in a theocracy because my values must somehow be foisted upon others. how does he justify his personal live? and others must to?t: who are you referring host: jim is gone. let's talk about mike pence. you have known him for 20 years. how has the president been in moments like that where the country has needed faith leaders as much as a presidential leader? guest: he has grown comfortable

in that environment. it was an unfamiliar environment for him. he is clearly on a journey as it pertains to his faith. he has grown comfortable and listens to and appreciates the input of evangelicals. quite frankly i think it has had a positive influence on him. jim's point.ress i don't know if he was talking about the president or me. nobody is trying to impose values. everybody has the opportunity in this country to bring their values to the table of discussion. e lastas on th administration, if you were a christian, you have to check your faith that the door before you could enter the public square. that is totally contrary to what the founders had in mind. does my view from the view to someone else? no. i have the right to aggressively

argue. that is how our system works. we have this public debate. in the capital, that is what happens. we come to a consensus. when that consensus is short-circuited because we marginalize or silence certain voices or the courts don't allow us to reach that consensus, that is where we have conflict. that is where we are today. with tonye, you're on perkins. caller: good morning. i was evident evangelical christian. i gave that up. i went back to be a true christian who follows the teachings of jesus. evangelicals have become paranoid, white christians losing their country to minorities. they have only one goal, and that is to keep america white and christian.

that is exactly the opposite of what christianity is. love andity is about helping others and taking care of others. what has happened is the paranoid white christians have become worshipers of donald trump. they follow all these false prophets out there living in 16 million-dollar houses flying in $10 million jets. they need to wake up. jesus is love, not hate. thank you. host: stephen in north carolina. guest: interesting. i will say this, i cannot disagree more with the caller. a few years ago, i wrote a book with a friend of mine who happens to be african-american, bishop harry jackson. it was about our faith. personal faith, public policy. he is a democrat. i am a republican. it is about how we use the guidance as

evangelicals. we reached a consensus and understanding, commonality through the scripture. the scripture has to guidance as evangelicals. be the defining fact. jesus said i am the truth. i am the way, the truth, and the life. no man comes to the father but through me. we want to describe jesus as love, he is love. he is also truth. to get yourharder message through in a society that has other religions? not as long as we can have a discussion. i know there is this focus on what is called those who no longer attend church. those people are not who have turned away from the faith, but i would say the church, and i am careful here because i'm painting with a broad brush. when you speak in generalities,

you get things wrong, but many in the church have turned away from the truth and this idea that everything is love. it is love, but it is the truth. it is the truth that shows people they need the love of god. if we have an opportunity to have that discussion, i think that is why it is important that we have a civil society in which all views can be respected, not agreed with, but respected. having that discussion is important. i have no concerns whatsoever about being able to defend what i believe. we just have to have that discussion. i think the truth at the end of the day prevails. host: tony announcer: c-span's campaign 2018 coverage continues right now with a debate between democrat conor lamb and

republican keith rothfus for president's 17th congressional district which has recently been redrawn. both candidates currently serb in the u.s. house representing the 12th and 18th districts. >> the congressional map has changed but the candidates are names you've heard before. >> most people tell me they're frustrated by the fact that congress isn't getting anything done. >> if you want more jobs and higher wages stick with what's been delivering you more jobs and higher wages. >> the race for the redrawn 17th district. the only race with two sitting congressmen. democrat conor lamb. >> unfortunately we are grid-locked on a lot of the most serious issues. >> and republican keith