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.