Trump Attacks Romney & Pelosi During National Prayer Breakfast

President Donald Trump attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) as he began his remarks during the National Prayer Breakfast.

Trump criticized “dishonest and corrupt people” who “badly hurt our nation” — seemingly referencing Democrats who pushed for his impeachment over allegations of abuse of power in Ukraine.

He then thanked “courageous Republican politicians and leaders (who) had the wisdom, fortitude and strength to do what everyone knows was right.”

Romney was the only Republican senator to break with the party and vote to convict, citing his Mormon faith.

“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that’s not so. So many people have been hurt and we can’t let that go on,” Trump said.

“We have allies, we have enemies, sometimes the allies are enemies but we just don’t know it. But we’re changing all that,” Trump later said.

In a statement explaining why he was voting to convict Trump for abusing his power, Romney referenced his faith.

“As a Senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise ‘impartial justice.’ I am a profoundly religious person,” Romney said. “I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”

He continued, “I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the President, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.”

The “I pray for you” comment by Trump was directed at Pelosi. She responded to a reporter in December that she prays for Trump “all the time,” after the reporter suggested she hated the president.

“I was raised in a way that was a heart full of love and always pray for the president and I still pray for the president,” Pelosi, a devout Catholic said. “I pray for the president all the time. So don’t mess with me when it comes when it comes to words like that.”

After the breakfast, Pelosi called Trump’s remarks about using faith as a justification to do “bad things” “completely inappropriate.”

“This morning the President said when people use faith as an excuse to do … bad things … was just so completely inappropriate, especially at a prayer breakfast,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference.

“I don’t know what the President understands about prayer or people who do pray, but we do pray for the United States of America,” she continued. “I pray hard for him because he’s so off the track of the Constitution, our values, our country.”

“He really needs our prayers, so he can say whatever he wants … but I do pray for him and I do so sincerely and without anguish,” Pelosi added.

She also said that Trump’s behavior was unacceptable, and he should not have brought up non-religious, political issues.

When Trump walked into the breakfast, he picked up a copy of USA Today that was laid on his place setting, and held it up for everyone to see. Its headline read “ACQUITTED.”

“To go into the stock market and raising up (the newspaper) and mischaracterizing other peoples’ motivation, he’s talking about things he knows little about faith and prayer,” Pelosi criticized.