The president may cut an unlikely figure as God’s instrument but attendees of the Values Voter Summit feel he is delivering and feel that they, too, are mocked by the mainstream media

As the Bible tells it, David committed adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrated the death of her husband. “But it didn’t mean he wasn’t a good warrior or a good king,” says Nancy Allen. “The Bible says love covers all sin: love of God, love of country, love of children, love of grandchildren covers all the imperfections.”

And love, Allen says, underpins the presidency of Donald Trump and explains why she supports him despite his three marriages, adulterous affairs and frequent insult-laden diatribes. “When he got out of New York, he fell in love with the people. That’s why he holds these rallies. He’s the people’s president. He loves the country and he loves the American people who work hard and have been overlooked for years. The insiders in Washington forgot about us.”

Allen, 71, was attending the 13th annual Values Voter Summit at a luxury hotel in Washington DC on Friday. A procession of speakers championed Trump’s achievements in advancing the conservative agenda over the past 20 months and whipped up hostility towards Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. Some also spoke in defence of his supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, who has almost been derailed by allegations of sexual assault from when he was 17.

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The president’s grip on the evangelical movement looked as solid as ever. He dips into a deep well of grievance: criticism of him in the media only appears to strengthen him among groups who complain that they, too, are persecuted by the urban elites. Their consciences have found their own way of coming to terms with the seemingly glaring contradiction between their strict moral principles and Trump’s private life, often by reaching for biblical terms such as forgiveness and redemption.

Like many at the conference, Allen was initially a supporter of Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican primary but, when the Texas senator was beaten into second place, she threw in her lot with Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton. “We had one choice if we wanted our country back: Trump or Hillary. I believe God put him in that position because he’s so tough. He has an amazing energy and determination. The amazing thing about Trump is that he doesn’t get rattled. The more the fake news does, the more energised he becomes.”

But what about Trump’s chequered past – the affairs, the lies, the boast about grabbing women’s private parts? Allen, from Shelby, North Carolina, replied: “I believe he’s changed. In the campaign, he started to surround himself with godly men and women. If he did those things, it would bother me but he is what we need at such a time as this. We don’t need a pansy. We need someone strong.”

She also expressed support for Kavanaugh, whose confirmation hangs in the balance after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexual assault at a party in 1982 when they were in high school and she was 15, he 17. Kavanaugh denies the allegations. Trump made the baseless claim on Twitter on Friday that if the attack “was as bad as she says”, charges would have been immediately filed.

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Allen, retired after running a personnel business, questioned why Democrats did not release a letter from Ford earlier in the confirmation process. “This is the playbook the Democrats are using. I’m not disparaging her but you have to ask, why do you wait 36 years? Look at what he is today and what he’s been for the last 36 years. I don’t believe he somehow turned; if it was part of his DNA, I think it would have happened again, not just that one time. When you think of all the women around him in the workplace, it would have come out.”

The Values Voter Summit is organised by the Family Research Council, which describes itself as a Christian public policy ministry defending religious liberty, the unborn and families. Its stated policy is that it “believes that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed. It is by definition unnatural.”

Outside the conference venue, the Omni Shoreham Hotel, a van was parked plastered with “Repent or perish” and other religious slogans. In the bowels of the hotel, a trade fair furnished with blue and red curtains and carpets included a plea to “restore modesty” – not a concept that immediately springs to mind when discussing Trump – in part by separating male and female students in single-gender dorms and discouraging same-sex marriage, as well as graphic images of Christians being persecuted around the world and promotional material for a film called The Trump Prophecy.

A bookshop included titles such as Hands Off My Gun by Dana Loesch, Adios, America! by Ann Coulter, Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump by Jerome Corsi, Death of a Nation by the rightwing conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza, The Closing of the Liberal Mind by Kim Holmes and Art from the Swamp: How Washington Bureaucrats Squander Millions on Awful Art by Bruce Cole.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was one of several high-profile Republican figures to address the Values Voter Summit. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Visitors were invited to write messages on a whiteboard under the question: “What do you stand for today?” Answers included “Our Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ”, “fighting for our freedom”, “Justice”, “Israel”, “Families”, “Truth in communication” and “Pepe” – the last is a reference to Pepe the Frog, adopted as a symbol by supporters of the “alt-right” in 2016.

The willingness of the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to give a speech in such an environment on Friday was controversial. Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, also spoke in the ballroom where images of stars were projected on to the walls. “You were called names because of your values,” he told the gathering. “You were mocked for the way you voted. But today, with our economy booming, our military rebuilding, and hope coming back into communities that were left behind, it’s your ideas and your values that are turning this country around.”

The room erupted in applause. McConnell boasted about the sweeping conservative transformation of the district courts, circuit courts and supreme courts, stressing the importance of the midterm elections so that the lifetime appointments can continue. And he brushed off the concerns about Kavanaugh.

“Here’s what I want to tell you: in the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States supreme court. So, my friends, keep the faith. Don’t get rattled by all of this. We’re going to plow right through it and do our job.” At that, there were cheers and applause.

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In another telling comment that partly explains the durability of Trump’s support, McConnell said: “If you want America to be a right-of-center nation, this last year and a half has been the best year and a half in my time in the Senate. And the reason you should know that, look how angry the left is, huh? Look at it. The angrier they get, the better we’re doing.”

He was followed on stage by Gary Bauer, president of the conservative organisation American Values, who recalled how Clarence Thomas survived allegations of sexual harassment from Anita Hill in 1991. “He was a black American willing to defend conservative principles and that’s why they needed to stop him,” he said.

He said of the current standoff: “This is a travesty. I can’t imagine what it has felt like to be Judge Kavanaugh in that hearing room with some of the things that have been pulled. It’s almost like political waterboarding – that’s what our confirmation process has become.”

Bauer criticised protesters who disrupted Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing: “Antifa wannabes acting like little Nazis trying to shout down the hearings.”

Support for Trump and Kavanaugh was widespread among women at the summit. Christine Munnin, 54, cradling her eight-month-old granddaughter Genevieve, said she thought the president was doing a “phenomenal” job, boosting the economy and creating jobs. “He’s pro-life and he supports the right of the unborn.

“I believe people change. He has made wrong choices but I have made wrong choices. He has the best interests of the country at heart.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Attendees lower their heads for a prayer at the opening ceremonies at the 2018 Values Voters Summit in Washington. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Munnin, a healthcare professional, added: “God does put people in positions and he also takes them out of positions. That’s our history. I’m not saying every president has lived up to their God-desired potential but he is trying to.”

Kavanaugh, she contended, “has a track record that proves him to be worthy of being a judge. Many politicians would be out of office if we judged them by their past history. He’s innocent until proved guilty.”

Susan Carter, 63, from Memphis, Tennessee, said: “I think God has chosen Donald Trump. He chose all of us to live our lives according to natural law. Trump never stops working. He has made mistakes; he’s not going to grovel but he’s said sorry. In the last 15 years of his life he has been married to that woman and [she] supported him.”

She also backed Kavanaugh, noting that no other accusers had come forward. “There are two courts in this country: the judicial system and the media. It’s not fair to try people in the media if you don’t have rules to follow.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, was candid about Trump’s appeal to religious conservatives. “The reason evangelicals embraced Donald Trump is they were scared into his arms by Hillary Clinton,” he told reporters.

“Trump was not a likely candidate for them but when it came down to Clinton, who promised to accelerate the policies of Obama, and Trump, who promised to return to the fundamentals of America, they gave him a chance. The more he is attacked by the liberals and the media, the more they feel a kinship with him.”

Similarly, he said, the attacks on Kavanaugh “actually help solidify the support for him”. But evangelical loyalty for Trump remains conditional on his behaviour and policies, Perkins warned. If his past misconduct towards women was continuing today, “that would be a different story”.