Washington keeps prayer breakfast tradition

Four living former presidents sent messages to Thursday’s virtual National Prayer Breakfast. The event featured recorded prayers and messages from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; President Joe Biden; and former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program. Every president has attended the breakfast since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.

What did Biden say during the breakfast? In his recorded remarks, the president called for a confrontation of the “political extremism” that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and said people turn to their faith during what he called a “dark, dark time.” The event did not include a message from former President Donald Trump. It’s unclear whether organizers invited him to send one.

Dig deeper: Read Emily Belz’s report about how a Russian spy tried to infiltrate the prayer breakfast several years ago.