WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday called for a confrontation of the “ political extremism ” that inspired the uprising in the Capitol and called for collective strength during such turbulent times in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, a Washington tradition that asks political fighters to put their differences aside for one morning.
Breakfast has sparked controversy in the past, especially when President Donald Trump used last year’s episode to defeat his political opponents and question their beliefs.. Some liberals have viewed the event cautiously because of the conservative, faith-based group behind it.
Still, Biden campaigned for the White House as someone who could unite Americans, and breakfast gave the country’s second Catholic president a chance to talk about his view of faith as a force for good.
“For so many in our country, this is a dark, dark time,” Biden told those who watched the event. So where should we go? Faith.”
Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., Said the event is “an inclusive and positive” event that “recognizes the teachings of Jesus but is not limited to Christianity.”
Breakfast progresses at a time when the country’s capital is facing a series of historic crises. Biden is struggling to gain significant support from Congressional Republicans for a coronavirus response package, increasing the likelihood that he will rely solely on Democrats to pass the legislation.
Many in Washington are still navigating the aftermath of the deadly Capitol uprising last month, to which Biden alluded in his comments Thursday, referring to the “political extremism” that sparked the siege. Trump faces an unprecedented second impeachment trial next week in the Senate on his role in instigating the riot.
Biden’s post on Thursday marked his latest call to bring Washington back to a more traditional base after four years of Trump’s aggressive style. At breakfast in 2020, Trump chose Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who had voted to condemn the president during his first impeachment trial. Trump even held up a newspaper with the headline “ACQUITTED” above his own photo.
Every president has attended breakfast since Dwight D. Eisenhower first appeared in 1953. The event ran completely virtually this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with Biden and all other speakers appearing via recorded comments. Four living former presidents sent messages to breakfast, three of which spoke on tape while Coons read a message from former President Jimmy Carter – making Trump’s absence stand out.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, co-chair of this year’s GOP’s breakfast, pointed to regular faith-based gatherings on Capitol Hill that are drawing senators from both ends of the ideological spectrum as models for the event. “We’re not face to face philosophically, politically, but we do embrace each other like brothers of faith,” said Scott, who also made virtual comments at breakfast, in an interview.
Since President Barack Obama’s administration, breakfast has been pushed back from gay and civil rights activists, with much of the opposition centered on the Fellowship Foundation, the conservative faith-based organization that has long supported the event. Religious liberals protested outside of Trump’s first performance in 2017, criticized his restrictions on the admission of refugees to the US, and a Russian gun rights activist convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent attended breakfast twice during his administration.
Norman Solomon, co-founder and national director of the progressive activist group RootsAction, warned Biden not to “reach down the aisle to bigotry.”
“We don’t need unity with bigotry,” said Solomon. “I’m afraid a subtext of this engagement is, ‘We can’t all get along.’ But that’s not appropriate in this case, given the well-known right-wing and anti-gay background of the event’s sponsors. ”
Solomon said Democratic presidents have continued the tradition of attending an event where their Republican counterparts often felt more comfortable because they feared being labeled as “ anti-religious or non-religious. ” He said Biden, a devout Catholic who attends Mass every week, had better send a unifying message by skipping the event and attending an event that is truly bipartisan instead.
“God knows there are many religious leaders and gatherings who are devout and affirm human equality,” he said. “This is not one of them.”
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, agreed that “there are far better ways” than breakfast for Biden to connect with people based on shared spiritual beliefs.
“We would like to work with the government to find a way to change the sponsorship of an event like this and make it a place for Americans of all different religious beliefs,” Laser said.
Still, Democratic leaders, aware of Biden’s devout Catholic faith and calls for a cure, have largely refrained from making public comments about the event this year. Pelosi, D-Calif., Recorded her own post at the event Thursday morning.
Both Laser and Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a fellow in the Faith Initiative at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, pointed to the Christian symbolism seen during last month’s Capitol Uprising as an opening for Biden to provide pluralistic, open language about the believe in the future.
“I hope President Biden recognizes that we are in a new moment,” said Graves-Fitzsimmons, “and that the threat of Christian nationalism poses a threat to both the sacred religious pluralism of the US and Christianity.”
___
The Associated Press coverage of religion is supported by the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation US. The AP is solely responsible for this content.