CLEVELAND – David Benham and Jason Benham, identical twins best known as authors and entrepreneurs The Benham Brothers, said GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence should emphasize social issues and religious liberty in the general election campaign.
“The social issues, specifically of religious liberty, is vital to American prosperity. I mean, that’s our first freedom – so Governor Pence, he caved in Indiana. Governor Deal, he caved in Georgia on these religious freedom protections – and the reason they caved is not because these guys didn’t want these bills, because they both wanted them,” Jason Benham said during an exclusive interview at the Republican National Convention. “The reason they caved is because of this mob mentality, this very small minority of people that absolutely bully you into silence.”
The Benham Brothers are former professional Minor League Baseball players, real estate professionals and authors of Living Among Lions. They had a show set to air on HGTV called Flip It Forward, but the network ultimately pulled the plug. The brothers had posted “traditional values based” videos and other content on social media, which caught the attention of liberal blogs that took issue with their opposition to same-sex marriage.
“They wrote articles and blogs and tried to vilify us and create a brand new story about us — that’s when HGTV was like, ‘oh gosh, we are getting too much pressure, we’ve got to let you go,’” Jason Benham said.
He encouraged Trump to embrace a values-based platform despite the backlash he might receive from the media.
“Moving closer to a values-based platform and not further away from it — unfortunately, the Democratic Party has moved further away from a values-based platform. But the Republican platform is moving closer and with Trump surrounding himself with some good faith-based leaders, a lot of people in the evangelical community are hoping that he can become presidential, that he could actually value humility and value character and these other things,” he said.
David Benham said Trump does not currently “speak with authority” on social issues.
“I wish he would, but you know what, and everybody is saying this, he’s surrounding himself with people who do, and so long as he can listen and let them do their thing just like he’s built his company,” he said. “I mean, you know, we’ve built lots of companies and we know you put the right people in the right place and let them do their thing and don’t hold them back, and your company is going to grow.”
David Benham continued, “If we want to make America great again, Donald Trump can’t do it, no one man can do it, only God can do it – so if he surrounds himself with godly people and lets them do their thing, we’ll see some positive change.”
Jason Benham advised Trump to “stand strong” on social issues such as abortion and not be politically correct.
“Don’t be afraid of these folks,” he said.
Benham said conservatives in the entertainment industry are often afraid to speak out for fear of the backlash such as the cancellation of a show or lost work opportunities.
“There’s that agenda — that mob. And we believe that it’s a demonic spiritual agenda that seeks to silence men and women of faith and that’s what it does. And they try to scare you to death like, ‘hey, if you speak out against this you are not going to get the leading role in this movie’ or ‘if you speak out against this you are going to lose your job or your business or your reputation, we are going to ruin it,’ and then people get scared,” he said.
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