Heading into 2020, President Donald Trump will look to appeal to white evangelical Christians, a voting bloc that played a huge role in his victory in 2016. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo White House Trump says he leaned on God to survive Mueller probe

President Donald Trump said Thursday he leaned on one thing to get through special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election: his faith.

“People say, ‘How do you get through that whole stuff? How do you go through those witch hunts and everything else?’” Trump said at the White House during a National Day of Prayer service.


He looked over to Vice President Mike Pence and shrugged.

“We just do it, right?” the president continued. “And we think about God.”

Since a redacted version of Mueller’s report was released last month, Republicans and Democrats have clashed over the implications of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the president obstructed justice.

Mueller wrote that there was insufficient evidence to find that the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin. The special counsel did not take a position on whether the president obstructed justice but detailed a number of instances in which the president attempted to interfere in Mueller’s investigation.

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Democrats have used the report as justification to ramp up congressional efforts to investigate the president and his actions, with some lawmakers calling to launch impeachment proceedings immediately. The White House, meanwhile, has led Republicans in arguing that Mueller found “no collusion.”

Heading into 2020, Trump will look once again to appeal to white evangelical Christians, a voting bloc that played a huge role in his victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. The president has touted his Christian faith in the past and filled his administration with advisers who are outspoken about their faith, perhaps most notably Pence.

The Trump administration has also pursued key policies sought by evangelicals, such as restricting abortion access, allowing religious nonprofits to make political contributions and establishing a Justice Department task force on religious liberty — accomplishments he trumpeted at the prayer service.

The president also condemned the “evil and hate-filled attacks” on religious communities throughout the world in the past year, inviting victims of a shooting at a California synagogue Saturday to speak.

“Every citizen has the absolute right to live according to the teachings of their faith and the convictions of their heart,” Trump said. “This is the bedrock of American life.”

