Why Did Obama's Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett Bring Politics Up at MLK Event?

Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to Barack Obama, spoke at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia at a Martin Luther King, Jr., event where she used that moment to pump up the president and attack Republicans. The church, that is supposed to be non-partisan, may be in big trouble due to her speech.

Here is part of the speech:

“I think about the fact that we all sleep a little easier at night knowing that Usama bin Laden and lieutenants are not plotting a terrorist attack against the United States … and I think back on my recent trip home to Chicago over the Christmas break, and as I walked through the airport, I saw so many soldiers in the airport returning home from their last tour of duty in Iraq in time for the Christmas holidays … and teachers and firefighters and policemen whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress, well let me be specific, because of the Republicans

in Congress. The president has taught me to choose my words clearly because the Republicans in Congress would not pass the American Jobs Act.”

Jonna Spilbor and Arthur Aidala have the debate in Kelly’s Court on today’s America Live.

Aidala thinks what she said was fine until, “when she goes into her comedy routine and she says, ‘Oh it's Republicans number one,’ and then she evokes the president’s name, no she’s really bringing politics into it.” He thinks the real “kicker” is that at the end of the speech they had a voter registration drive right outside, which could be a problem with the IRS.

Spilbor said, “The church itself shouldn’t be put to test because they invited her in as a member of the White House and she said what she said.”