Richard Gephardt: “I would hope that we would welcome the new Chaplain that has been appointed by the Speaker and try our level best to…”

“I would hope that we would welcome the new Chaplain that has been appointed by the Speaker and try our level best to make his service in this Congress as positive as it possibly can be. I am very sorry that we have come to this point. I tried in what we did in our committee with Majority Leader Armey and Speaker Hastert to come to a bipartisan agreement on who the Chaplain would be. I had concerns when the process was announced that it would be maybe difficult to get to a bipartisan selection, but I hoped we could do that. I have never said and never believed that there was bias of any kind in the making of this selection. And I have never said that.”