Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, alongside Republican Sen. John Boozman, met with President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday and invited him to the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.
“He expressed very strong interest. He’ll get back to us on a specific commitment but it seemed nearly certain that he would come,” Coons told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.”
The National Prayer Breakfast is an annual event in Washington, held on the first Thursday of February each year. This year it’s scheduled to be on February 2, 2017.
Lawmakers and religious leaders from about 70 countries gather at the annual Washington event to pray for international leaders and the direction of the country.
President Barack Obama spoke at the national prayer event in 2016 highlighting the importance of needing to overcome fear through faith. In 2013, neurosurgeon turned politician Ben Carson rose to prominence after giving an impassioned speech at the breakfast.
Coons, a frequent critic of Trump during the campaign, said he did not discuss his other concerns, but he certainly would have, had the meeting been about politics.
“I would have demanded he release his taxes and urged him to hold the press conference that was scheduled for today to talk about how he’s going to address his conflicts of the interest,” he said.
Coons also said his past jabs about the President-elect did not come up.
“I regret the sharpness of some of those comments,” he said. “He didn’t bring that up. I didn’t bring that up. We frankly had a conversation about the National Prayer Breakfast.”