On Thursday, President Donald Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, an event that has been going on since 1953, which means his Democratic predecessors, Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, also attended the event. That didn't stop Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) from going on his crazy rant about "MAGA Republicans" and "church and state" as he went to protest the event, posting a nearly 90-second video clip of him doing so.
The post also begins by bringing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) into it, suggesting that this is his prayer breakfast and part of a pattern when it comes to "MAGA Republicans taking a sledgehammer to the wall between church and state."
Speaker Johnson’s National Prayer Breakfast is yet another example of MAGA Republicans taking a sledgehammer to the wall between church and state. Walk with me to protest this morning… pic.twitter.com/rGGGqznb8p
— Rep. Jared Huffman (@RepHuffman) February 6, 2025
As Huffman went on to share during the video in his walk over to protest, highlighting how he was wearing buttons to support the separation of church and state, intending it was what "our founders intended for our secular republic." While it's refreshing to hear a Democrat acknowledge we actually live in a republic, it was one based on founding documents with Judeo-Christian values, and the idea of separation of church and state, which is not explicitly in the Constitution, has also woefully been misunderstood over the years.
With a straight face, Huffman also showed his "Entering Gilead," which he explained is "of course a reference to a creepy dystopic theocracy, which is the slippery slope we're heading down with events like this." He was also seen sporting a rainbow pin.
"We should not be having a Christian prayer service in the sanctum of the United States Capitol in Statuary Hall," Huffman continued, as he claimed that "this is an actual violation of church-state separation like we've never seen," and also complained that "this is the second year in a row [that] Speaker Johnson has done this." He even claimed, again, all with a straight face, that "now they're doing it in open collaboration with the Fellowship Foundation," which is the group that previously hosted the event until Congress needed to have more involvement due to concerns over transparency and other issues. He described it as "this radical, extremist group," which is surely in part why control over the breakfast was taken away.
In conclusion, Huffman once more brought it back to the crusade of separation of church and state. "Stuff like this," he said while gesturing to the Capitol, "this complete breakdown of church-state separation is a big part of the dystopic, authoritarian agenda at the heart of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement..."
The congressman's post, shared from his official account, has received close to 2,500 replies and has been hit with Community Notes, pointing out that both Obama and Biden attended.
Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman was among those also issuing such a reminder, though Huffman responded by doubling down further and specifically going after how "Speaker Johnson and his Christian Nationalist backers moved it into the U.S. Capitol."
The National Prayer Breakfast happened every year as a privately-funded event in a hotel until Speaker Johnson and his Christian Nationalist backers moved it into the U.S. Capitol, transforming it into a government-run, taxpayer-funded institution stamped with the imprimatur of… https://t.co/tFFJYOiDRf
— Rep. Jared Huffman (@RepHuffman) February 6, 2025
Speaking about Huffman's claims about such collaboration, NPR reported on the matter at the time in 2023, with a headline on how "Congress takes reins of prayer breakfast from secretive Christian evangelical group." Given how much Democrats have been ranting and raving lately about concerns with secrecy, specifically when it comes to their claims about access that Elon Musk and DOGE have, one would think that Huffman would be relieved by such a move as the takeover.
As the article explains, pointing to concerns about the breakfast's previous association with Huffman's fellow Democrats:
On its face, the National Prayer Breakfast is a serene, bipartisan event full of spiritual reflection.
But over the years, the breakfast has also been a source of controversy — full of shadowy fundraising, behind-the-scenes lobbying and even infiltration by a Russian spy.
So lawmakers now have taken it out of the hands of the secretive Christian evangelical group that has run it for decades — the International Foundation, also known as the Fellowship Foundation or "The Family," a name popularized in recent years by a book by the same name and a 2019 Netflix docuseries based on it.
It painted a picture of a clubby, closed-door group that had the ear of lots of Washington power players and bold-faced names without much transparency about their donors or agenda.
"When Sen. [James] Lankford, [R-Okla.], and I were co-chairs of the National Prayer Breakfast a number of years ago, there were a lot of questions raised about the finances, about who was invited, about how it was structured," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and frequent participant in the prayer breakfast. "And we frankly had to admit, as co-chairs, we didn't know as much as we felt we should have."
With Coons' and several others' help, a new, nonprofit group was formed — the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation with the sole purpose of putting on the signature event. It's headed by former Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who said the first big change, in addition to the new legal status, is it will be smaller and more controlled.
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The event is also being moved from a prominent Washington hotel to the U.S. Capitol complex. The changes will essentially wall off members of Congress from mixing with any unforeseen guests who present potential conflicts of interest — or worse.
The article makes zero mention of Johnson. Although he was not speaker at the time when the article was written, another key detail mentioned is how Congress has more control over the breakfast with the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation, headed by former Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, a Democrat.
While Huffman mentions he did protest when Biden spoke last year, this year's post is clearly different, as he also rants and raves about Johnson and "MAGA Republicans."
That still wasn't the end of Huffman going on about the matter, though. In the same thread as his quoted repost of Sherman, he shared a press release from his office from last week sharing his concerns.
I have serious concerns about institutionalizing a religious ceremony in the heart of our secular Capitol and about its ties to extremists who advocate for laws to kill all gay people.
— Rep. Jared Huffman (@RepHuffman) February 6, 2025
I urged Speaker Johnson to consider these concerns and take appropriate action to address the…
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