In a statement to The Brody File, The White House says any suggestion that the administration purposely covered a cross and a Catholic religious monogram during President Obama’s speech this week at Georgetown are “simply false”.
The President delivered remarks Tuesday at Gaston Hall and normally there is a cross and monogram that says “IHS” which is the traditional Roman Catholic abbreviation for Jesus’ name. Take a look at what Gaston Hall normally looks like HERE. Now see HERE at what it looked like during President Obama’s speech.
Here is what The White House is telling The Brody File:
The President appreciated the gracious hosts at Georgetown University where he delivered his speech on the state of the economy. Decisions made about the backdrop for the speech were made to have a consistent background of American flags, which is standard for many presidential events. Any suggestions to the contrary are simply false."
More info on the story here.
Georgetown University is saying that The White House made the request to cover all symbols around the stage but it’s important to point out at there are dozens of religious symbols in Gaston Hall and those were not covered up. Also, other still pictures from the event show portraits of Jesus in the background which are off center from the stage. In addition, I can tell you that it has been my experience on the campaign trail that advance teams do typically make backdrops as generic as possible. It’s pretty much standard fare to make them that way. Also, the fact that Georgetown University actually has a perfectly fit triangle piece to cover up the cross and monogram suggests that they have done this before at other events. We are waiting on Georgetown to provide us a response to that question.
Is this much to do about nothing? Or do you think this was done with a specific religious purpose in mind?