Posted on 03/21/2025 11:16:21 PM PDT by Red Badger
DNC chair Ken Martin railed against GOP at church town hall billed as a discussion about Medicaid
A Pennsylvania priest admonished an audience of Democratic Party leaders at a town hall at his church on Thursday, saying he was misled about an event billed as a discussion about Medicaid that turned into a Democratic "stump speech."
DNC chairman Ken Martin, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), and other Democrats appeared at a "People's Town Hall" event held at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pa., located in the district of freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.
Though the event was touted as a discussion about funding for Medicaid, the Democratic guests used the pulpit to attack President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Mackenzie. Martin, who was elected DNC chair last month, called Trump and Musk "cowards" and accused them of "throwing seniors on the streets." Raskin offered similar remarks and went through a litany of grievances about the Trump administration. "We will fight them in the cities, we will fight them all over America, and we're going to win," Raskin said.
That sparked a stunning reprimand from the Very Rev. Jon Stratton, the dean and rector of the Bethlehem church.
"I was told that this was going to be a town hall about Medicaid and not a stump speech for the Democratic Party, and I am upset about that right now," Stratton said after Raskin's speech.
"I hope that this, this goes back to a discussion about Medicaid, 'cause this is not a partisan place," he added. "Do you understand?"
The prospect that Democrats misled a church to host a political event comes as the party faces its lowest approval rating in decades. Just 27 percent of registered voters hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party, according to an NBC News poll released this week. Thirty-nine percent of voters had a positive view of the Republican Party.
The church event is not the first Democrat-sponsored town hall to blow up in the party's face. Democrats and groups like Indivisible, funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, have increasingly used town hall events to highlight what they say is a bipartisan, grassroots backlash against the Republican Party. Indivisible, which cosponsored the town hall in Bethlehem, was revealed to have offered to reimburse protesters for anti-GOP events, going as far as providing funding for protesters to wear chicken suits, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Democrats have also organized town hall events as a way to suggest that Republican incumbents are ducking voters. The organizers of the Bethlehem church event set up an empty chair reserved for Mackenzie, the Republican. Martin, the DNC chairman, called Mackenzie "cowardly" for skipping the event. But Mackenzie, who was holding a telephone conference call for constituents at the time, did receive some support at the town hall.
Dawn Godshall, the executive director of Community Action Lehigh Valley, praised Mackenzie for meeting with her earlier this month in Washington, D.C., to discuss federal funding for her organization.
"He was very kind," Godshall said. "He said that if we were having difficulty accessing funding that was already promised to us … he would be willing to assist us in that area."
Mackenzie, who defeated Democrat Susan Wild in November, said the priest's rebuke shows the Democratic Party "has gone off the rails."
"Shame on the Lehigh Valley Democrats for pulling such a stunt in a house of worship," he said.
The DNC did not respond to a request for comment.
Ready (skip that), Fire, Aim.
Did you shoot yourself, protestant?
This priest and church are Episcopalian, you hater dumbass.
You insult my wife and her upright and conservative Irish Catholic family. I have seen both sides close up and Catholics are not worse.
Hate to put a damper on your little anti-Catholic rant, but this priest is of the Episcopaliank denomination, so he is definitely not a “papist.”
I will say a prayer for you.
Democrats lied. Imagine that.
M Democrats have no shame and no respect for God or religion.
[[’I Am Upset’: Priest Says Dems Misled Him About Town Hall Held at His Church]]
Sucker- if he believed a dem, then he deserves to be hoodwinked! Is he the village idiot? Or the village idiot’s thicker brother?
Why would the Churchman give Raskin, the atheist Communist, a bully pulpit? Like the apostate Episcopal Church itself, his words don’t ring true.
Woopsie, my bad.
I read Priest and immediately assumed he was of the catholic charities/USAID illegal alien smuggling variety.
I’m a recovering Roman Catholic, born-again Christian.
What’s this “protestant” crap I keep hearing about?
Most Catholics I know are ostensibly Christian, “cafe Catholics.”
Good thing this is the last pope (if you follow Malachi).
Very sad for you.
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