Meet the Press Host: Obama Doesn’t Like the National Prayer Breakfast

On Sunday, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd said he believes President Barack Obama intentionally stirred controversy at the National Prayer Breakfast because he does not like the event.

“I have my own theory,” said Todd. “He’s not a big fan of the Prayer Breakfast, I think. And I think he almost enjoys creating a rhetorical debate.”

Obama sparked ire among American Christians when he used his speech at last week’s National Prayer Breakfast to lecture Christians not to get on their “high horse” about Islamic State terrorists’ videotaped immolation of a caged Jordanian pilot because centuries ago the Crusades occurred.

“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

Todd offered no further details on why Obama dislikes the National Prayer Breakfast.

Since its inception in 1953, every U.S. President since Dwight Eisenhower has participated in the National Prayer Breakfast.