The Democrat Party is attempting to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to defeat Donald Trump in the November election, evangelical leader Franklin Graham stated on Twitter Friday.

Rev. Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse relief fund and son of “America’s pastor” Billy Graham, said that Democrat politicians and the liberal media want to see this lockdown “drag out & further weaken the economy — not to save lives — but to try to use this to defeat Donald Trump in the election.”

Graham has said he finds it encouraging to hear President Trump announce guidelines for reopening America.

“We thank God that it looks like we are past the peak of the #COVID19 infection rate,” Graham wrote in a separate tweet. “We’ve got to get our country up & running before the economy & people’s lives are damaged more.”

Graham added that “we also have to learn how to conduct business & keep production going during a pandemic.”

The evangelical leader came under fire recently for coronavirus relief efforts in New York City carried out by Samaritan’s Purse when the LGBT lobby learned that Graham recruits like-minded Christians as volunteers for his outreach.

LGBT lobby group Accountable for Equality said Graham and Samaritan’s Purse are guilty of “putting New Yorkers’ lives on the line” by recruiting Christians who believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

The many Christian volunteers working for Samaritan’s Purse adhere to a statement of Christian principles, including the nature of matrimony as taught by the Christian church.

Chris Fleming, spokesman for Accountable for Equality, stated the group’s behavior is “despicable and flat out blasphemous.”

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