KANSAS CITY, Mo. – U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver says he was caught off guard by the negative response after he ended his opening prayer on the first day of the new Congress by saying the words, “Amen and A-woman.”
Cleaver, a United Methodist minister and former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, is in his ninth term in Congress.
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Cleaver told the Kansas City Star that his “A-woman” reference on Sunday was intended to recognize the record number of women serving in the new Congress.
But it spurred criticism from conservatives who accused Cleaver of misunderstanding the meaning of “amen,” a Hebrew word that means “so be it.”