WASHINGTON (AP) — It was just past 3 a.m., a few hours before the House vote on President Donald Trump’s top priority in Congress, his “big, beautiful bill.” House Speaker Mike Johnson was rushing through the Capitol halls with his security guards and aides in tow. For a moment, he paused.
Would you like to see the prayer room? he asked an Associated Press reporter.
The question was in response to another question about his leadership style: whether his religion, his Christian faith, had been guiding him through the tumultuous process.
“This is like a cathedral at night,” he said, walking toward an almost-hidden door. “It’s the most beautiful thing in the Capitol.”
He punched in the key code and stepped inside.
‘Just praying’
The room, transformed in the 1950s, sits just off the suite of second-floor offices of the House speaker, centered in the Capitol, on its west end closest to the National Mall.
“Been here a lot this week, right there on my knees,” Johnson said. “Just praying. … That’s what the founders did.”
As Wednesday night had melted into Thursday morning, none other than George Washington, the first president himself, watched over the room, his tall figure bent on one knee in the stained-glass image high above a small altar.
“In times of great challenge, they got on their knees and they sought divine guidance, and that’s what we do,” Johnson was saying. “Because I’m convinced that God’s given us a chance to save this great republic.”
Johnson is a conservative Christian and among the more outwardly religious of House speakers. He was an accidental choice to lead Republicans, selected after his GOP colleagues ousted their previous s …