Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who is weighing a primary challenge against President Donald Trump, said Netflix’s new conspiratorial documentary, “The Family,” prominently featuring the former state executive, was making something out of nothing.
The documentary series released this summer chronicles what it describes as a secret Christian group in Washington, D.C., with influence over the rich and powerful, and it alleges that Sanford had deep ties to the organization referred to as “The Family” or “The Fellowship.”
“It has much to do about nothing,” Sanford told The Federalist when asked about the series. “It’s trying to create a conspiracy that I’m either totally unaware of or doesn’t exist.”
The documentary centers on Sanford during the former governor’s famous 2009 press conference, when Sanford, having disappeared on a stint to Argentina with a mistress after staff reported him gone on the Appalachian Trail, admitted to marital infidelity and “exposed” the Christian Bible study group on C Street in Washington, D.C., run by “The Family.”
According to those in the documentary, Sanford violated one of the first rules of the organization, which was not to talk about the group at C Street.
Sanford denied that the group was secret, however. “It’s well known within Congress. People in both parties are invited. It’s not a secret society.”
Sanford said the group he met with there during his first few terms in Congress was simply a group of members who came together to pray and ask hard questions to hold each other accountable, such as whether or not each member was focusing enough time on their own family. “The idea of members of Congress going to Bible studies is probably a good idea,” Sanford said. “These were straight-up and straight-forward guys.”
The former governor said he is not consulting anyone in “The Family” as he considers a possible run for president.
