WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday called for a confrontation with the “political extremism” that inspired the US Capitol rebellion and called for collective force during such turbulent times in comments at the National Prayer Breakfast, a tradition of Washington asking political fighters to set aside their differences for a morning.
Breakfast has generated controversy in the past, especially when President Donald Trump used last year’s edition to criticize his political opponents and question his faith. Some liberals viewed the event with caution because of the faith-based conservative group behind it.
Still, Biden campaigned for the White House as someone who could unify 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 nation, this is a dark, dark time,” said Biden to those attending the event. “So, where are we going? Faith.”
Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., Said the event is “inclusive and positive”, which “recognizes Jesus’ teachings, but is not limited to Christianity”.
Breakfast advances at a time when the country’s capital faces a series of historic crises. Biden is struggling to get significant support from Republicans in Congress for a coronavirus response package, increasing the likelihood that he will rely only on Democrats to pass the legislation.
Many in Washington are still sailing after the deadly US Capitol uprising last month, which Biden alluded to in his statements on Thursday, referring to the “political extremism” that spurred the siege. Trump faces unprecedented second impeachment trial in the Senate next week about his role in inciting the riot.
Biden’s message on Thursday marked his last call to return Washington to a more traditional stance after four years of Trump’s aggressive style. During breakfast in 2020, Trump highlighted Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted to convict the president during his first impeachment trial. Trump even held up a newspaper with the headline “ACQUITADO” over his own photo.
All presidents have attended breakfast since Dwight D. Eisenhower made his first appearance in 1953. The event has become totally virtual this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, with Biden and all the other speakers appearing through recorded commentary. Four living ex-presidents sent messages for breakfast, with three speaking on tape while Coons read a message from ex-president Jimmy Carter – making Trump’s absence evident.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, co-chairman of the Republican Breakfast Party this year, pointed to regular religious meetings on Capitol Hill that attract senators from both ends of the ideological spectrum as a model for the event. “We don’t agree philosophically, politically, but we embrace like brothers of faith,” said Scott, who also made virtual comments over breakfast in an interview.
Breakfast has drawn resistance from gay and civil rights activists since the administration of President Barack Obama, with much of the opposition focused on the Fellowship Foundation, the faith-based conservative organization that has long supported the event. Religious liberals protested at Trump’s first appearance in 2017, criticizing his US refugee admission limits, and a Russian arms rights activist convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent attended breakfast twice during its administration.
Norman Solomon, co-founder and national director of the group of progressive activists RootsAction, cautioned Biden “not to go through fanaticism through any corridor”.
“We don’t need to unite with prejudice,” said Solomon. “I fear that a subtext of this engagement is: ‘Could it be that we can’t get along?’ But this is not appropriate in this case, given the well-known right-wing and anti-gay track record of the event’s sponsors. ”
Solomon said Democratic presidents continued the tradition of attending an event where their Republican colleagues were often more comfortable because they feared being labeled “anti-religious or non-religious”. He said Biden, a devout Catholic who attends Mass every week, could better send a unifying message by skipping the event and, instead, attending one that is truly bipartisan.
“God knows that there are many religious leaders and meetings that are devout and affirm human equality,” he said. “This is not one of them.”
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of United Americans for the Separation of Church and State, agreed that “there are much better ways” than breakfast for Biden to connect with people based on shared spiritual beliefs.
“We would love 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,” said Laser.
Still, Democratic leaders, aware of Biden’s devout Catholic faith and calls for healing, refrained from making public comments about the event this year. Pelosi, D-Calif., Recorded his own message for the event on Thursday morning.
Both Laser and Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a member of the faith initiative at the Center for American Progress’ liberal study center, pointed to the Christian symbolism seen during the Capitol riot last month as an opening for Biden to offer open language and pluralist about faith in the future.
“I hope President Biden will recognize that we are in a new moment,” said Graves-Fitzsimmons, “and that the threat of Christian nationalism is a threat to both the sacred religious pluralism of the United States and Christianity.”
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