LIVE VIDEO: Trump Speaks At Values Voter Summit, First Sitting President To Address Hate Convention

The Independent reports:

Donald Trump is to address the annual conference of an anti-LGBT group which has been classified as a hate group. The US president will become the first sitting president to address social conservative activists and elected officials at the Value Voters Summit in Washington DC on Friday.

President Trump has addressed the event which is hosted by the Family Research Council three times in total and did so last year as the Republican presidential candidate.

Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, condemned President Trump’s decision to address the event. “By appearing at the Values Voter Summit, President Trump is lending the legitimacy of his office to a hate group that relentlessly demonizes LGBT people and works to deny them of their equal rights,” he told The Independent.

The event, which counts religious extremists, white supremacists, and far-right activists among its attendees, will also include speeches from former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former White House aide Sebastian Gorka.