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Opinion Chris Coons: ‘I prayed for President Trump. I think all of us should pray.’

Columnist|
May 16, 2017 at 9:31 a.m. EDT
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“This is a moment of great peril both for our country’s safety and for our democracy.”

The question I asked Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) that elicited that response was simple: Does the president make you scared? “I am gravely concerned about the actions of this president, our president,” he said, seated in his Capitol Hill office behind the desk used by fellow First Stater and former vice president Joe Biden. “He is confusing our allies. He is encouraging our enemies. He’s creating openings that I am convinced a hostile force will take advantage of.”

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For more conversations like this, subscribe to “Cape UP” on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

The latest episode of “Cape Up” concluded about five minutes before The Post broke the blockbuster news that “Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week.” The stunning story, instantly picked up and confirmed by other news outlets, added to the chaos already engulfing the White House since Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey and then threatened him via Twitter.

“The historical antecedent here is even more troubling,” Coons said. “That in the middle of a firing of an FBI director, that’s been described by many as Nixonian, that the current president would then suggest he’s, actually without their knowledge, been taping lots of conversations, is a reminder that this is a president who is well outside of the boundaries of current normal political behavior.”

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Listen to the podcast to hear Coons discuss whom he would like to see replace Comey, the need for a special counsel to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, the possibility of impeachment and the problems he has with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But the loquacious senator, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, took a moment when I asked if he has put his degree to use since Trump’s inauguration.

“I have put more time in prayer than perhaps I had before,” Coons told me. “There is nothing about how he conducted the campaign or his actions in the first few months that would give me hope, but that is what faith after all is, is the triumph of hope over experience.”

“Cape Up” is Jonathan’s weekly podcast talking to key figures behind the news and our culture. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts.