Trump Awkwardly Stands Behind Democratic Congressman Who Makes Urgent Plea During Prayer
with the president Donald Trump Standing awkwardly behind him, a Democratic congressman used his prayer from the National Prayer Breakfast to encourage Trump to “think of the families preparing to bury their loved ones in Minneapolis.”
Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), speaking at the bipartisan Washington, D.C., event Thursday shortly after Trump delivered a rambling speech, prayed for “the future of this nation” and asked God to “guide this president to higher levels of compassion.”
“Today we remind him that the lives of millions of people are in his hands and that he has the power to turn mourning into dance or turn the country into a cosmic elegy of chaos and pain,” said Jackson, son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
Jackson went on to call on Trump to “pay attention to the poor” and “invest in alleviating the suffering on farms in the Midwest as families prepare to bury their loved ones in Minneapolis.”
“We are all Americans, we are all created in the image of God, and unless the freedoms of all are protected, none of us are free,” he added. (Watch the video at the end of the story.)
When the prayer was over, Trump shook Jackson’s hand and appeared to say, “Great words.”
Representative Jonathan Jackson (far left) speaks as President Donald Trump listens during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
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Republican president during his speech in question He didn’t know “how a person of faith could vote for a Democrat.”
The call to Trump comes amid weeks of chaos in Minnesota as a result of his administration’s crackdown on immigrants. rhetoric It helps sow discord.
Policy: Trump Continues to Blame ‘The Left’ for Political Violence After Years of Hoarding It
The president baselessly accused the state of hosting thousands of violent undocumented immigrants, calling them “worst of the worst.”
Amid protests against the influx, federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, 37-year-old Renee Good and 37-year-old Alex Pretti, in separate incidents.
Trump administration on Wednesday announced is reducing immigration operations around Minnesota by withdrawing about 700 of the nearly 3,000 federal officers sent to the state.
Speaking to NBC News later the same day, Trump said: accepted he could have applied “a slightly softer touch” to the area.
