Tweet
GOP Congressman Walks Out During Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast Speech
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., listens to testimony during a hearing about the the Obama administration’s roll in the Solyndra loan guarantee at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 14, 2011 in Washington, D.C
A Republican Georgia congressman walked out during President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday.
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., left during Obama’s speech because "he was disturbed and offended by the president’s use of prayer and reflection time for partisan politics and class warfare."
“Rep. Gingrey found the breakfast to be inspiring until President Obama began politicking, which the congressman found to be inappropriate,” Jen Talaber, spokeswoman for Rep. Gingrey, told CBS Atlanta. “While he commends the president for his attendance, Rep. Gingrey wanted to hear what was in his heart and not campaign rhetoric.”
During the National Prayer Breakfast speech, the president compared his economic policies to the teachings of Jesus.
“And I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense,” the president said. “But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’”
Talaber told CBS Atlanta that these types of political comments during a prayer breakfast “disappointed” the congressman.
“There are 364 other days a year in which to do that.”
Gingrey has thrown his support behind Newt Gingrich during the GOP primaries.
Source: CBS