On Friday, President Donald J. Trump (R) and his wife, Melania, visited southern Lee County which was ravaged by a tornado touchdown that killed 23 Alabamians.
“I know it means a lot to the people in Lee County to have President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visit their community today,” Congressman Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, said the day that the President arrived. “This storm was not only an Alabama tragedy but a national tragedy, and now we must all help them recover.”
While the President was on the ground comforting the victims; some of the survivors asked the President to sign their family Bibles. In some cases the Bibles were some of their few possessions to be salvaged from their destroyed homes. The President complied and signed the Bibles; but was attacked by some of his many media critics.
Trump supporters were quick to react to the attacks on President Trump for the signing the Bibles in Alabama last week.
2016 Alabama Trump Victory Chair former state Representative Perry O Hooper Jr. issued said in a statement: “I’m appalled at how low Trump hating liberals will stoop, even using a tragedy where 23 Alabamians lost their lives, to cast dispersion on President Trump. They need to apologize not only to the President, but to the brave citizens of Lee County who are trying to put their lives back together. The President was asked first by a 12-year-old boy then others mostly children and young teens to sign their Bibles so they would have a permanent reminder of when the President came to visit to offer them solace and comfort in their darkest hour. In the South, signatures in a person’s Bible ‘bring back great memories of relationships and friendships and moments in our life,’ said Rusty Sowell, pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Opelika, Ala., where Trump signed tornado victims’ Bibles March 8.”
State Auditor Jim Zeigler (R) said, “Trump critics are trying to make it an issue that Trump complied when survivors and responders asked him to sign their Bibles. This criticism is ridiculous. Signing the Bibles was not the President’s idea, and he did not tell anyone to bring their family Bibles.”
Hooper said, “Perhaps President Trump learned of the tradition in 2005 when Billy Graham signed a bible for a very special friend; ‘To Donald Trump, God Bless you always. Billy Graham.’”
“What is wrong with these haters?” Zeigler said. “Did they expect the President to refuse the requests for his signatures? They would have criticized that too. The act of the President was meaningful to the survivors and responders at a time when they needed uplifting. If the haters have a problem with that, then I quote from Alabama’s Gomer Pyle — ‘shame, shame, shame.'”
