Donald Trump on Friday said that he would defend religious liberty and "restore the rule of law" if he were elected president in a speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Washington that was interrupted several times by protesters.
"Religious freedom, the right of people of faith to freely practice their faith," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told the coalition's annual conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. "Freedom of any kind means no one should be judged by their race or their color or the color of their skin.
"Should not be judged that way," Trump said. "Right now we have a very divided nation. We're going to bring our nation together."
He said that one of his goals was to "uphold the sanctity and dignity of life.
"Marriage and family as the building block of happiness and success. I know many, many successful people. The happiest people are the people that have a great religious feel and that incredible marriage, children.
"It's more important than the money."
About 10 minutes into the speech, Trump slammed presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — saying that "she wants a 500 percent increase in Syrian refugees to come into our country" — leading protesters to yell "refugees are welcome here" and "dump Trump."
As they were being led out by police, the crowd chanted "USA, USA, USA" and "Trump, Trump, Trump."
"We don't need any 'Dump Trump' Democrats in here," one man yelled.
Throughout the fracas, which lasted more than two minutes, Trump stood quietly at the podium, occasionally shaking his head.
He thanked security for removing the demonstrators.
"A little freedom of speech," Trump said. "Freedom of speech. Thank you. What are you gonna do? Very sad. Very sad what's happening in our society. We are so divided.
"By the way, these are professional agitators," Trump added to the applause of the crowd. They're sent here by the other party."
He continued by outlining "some of the things that we can accomplish together" — including appointing conservative judges, supporting neighbors and law enforcement and restoring the rule of law.
"We will restore respect for people of faith who judiciously raise their children, follow our laws and rules," Trump said. "We have to take care of our neighbors, because right now our neighbors are not being taken care of.
"We have to restore the rule of law — on our border, in our government, no matter where it is. It has to be restored."
He also declared that "we will protect the right of churches to speak their minds on political matters without intimidation."
Trump also pledged to enact "tough new ethics rules to restore dignity to the Office of Secretary of State, which it hasn't had in a while."
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