{"id":153,"date":"2026-05-29T10:10:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=153"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:10:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:10:32","slug":"tom-suozzi-lives-at-c-street-controversial-christian-center-behind-national-prayer-breakfasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Tom Suozzi lives at C Street, controversial Christian center behind National Prayer Breakfasts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For years, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) has lived at a Washington townhouse run by the Fellowship Foundation, aka The Family, the secretive group behind a global, right-wing Christian political network.<\/p>\n

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Known as the C Street Center, C Street house, or just C Street, the building is home to members of Congress who enjoy below-market rental rates and the services of college volunteers, all provided by The Fellowship. Suozzi has assisted The Fellowship\u2019s work, publicly and privately, for most of his time in Congress.<\/p>\n

One religious leader told me that Suozzi tried to keep his C Street lodgings a secret. Suozzi\u2019s roommate is Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), who has only discussed living there in one religious podcast, but is known as a Fellowship insider and staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights.<\/p>\n

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Suozzi is a frequent facilitator of Fellowship network-building, including recently in El Salvador, where he and Moolenaar praised the president, Nayib Bukele, who joined The Fellowship\u2019s ring of prayer breakfasts. Suozzi and Moolenaar sing at Fellowship events with Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), who was flown by The Fellowship to bolster Ugandan politicians who enacted an LGBTQ+ death penalty there.<\/p>\n

Suozzi\u2019s and Moolenaar\u2019s vague public references to their Washington lodgings match known details about life at C Street. One detail they haven\u2019t mentioned is their rent, $800 each per month. Neither responded to emailed questions about the reporting in this article.<\/p>\n

An analysis of House reimbursement disclosures shows that their rent is consistent with C Street rents, and lower than what other Washington renters pay, even in less expensive neighborhoods. One ethics watchdog told me the low rents could constitute illegal gifts.<\/p>\n

Suozzi has been a vocal advocate for cooperation and reconciliation with Republicans, working often with Fellowship Republicans. He takes an opposite tack toward Democrats on his left. In The Fellowship, reconciliation typically involves everyone from conservative Democrats to right-wing dictators; seldom journalists or the left.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not known who subsidizes the low rents at C Street, which is technically a church and doesn\u2019t disclose its backers. The C Street Center nonprofit that owns and runs the house is controlled by four Fellowship insiders, all Republican donors, including Moolenaar\u2019s millionaire mentor.<\/p>\n

The three-story residence has spawned a variety of scandals over the years. Those include not just ethics complaints about the low rent, but three political sex scandals.<\/p>\n

U.S. and other government records suggest C Street remains a hub for international lobbying to this day.<\/p>\n

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Most visibly, Suozzi has been a leader of The Fellowship\u2019s National Prayer Breakfast as The Fellowship used it to bolster friendly dictators, right-wing allies, accused human-rights abusers, and others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

So, for most of his congressional career, Suozzi\u2019s involvement has helped The Fellowship build right-wing political networks working around the world against LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights and, in some places, democracy. Fellowship leaders and donors have promoted election denial for decades overseas and, more recently, here in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Most visibly, Suozzi has been a leader of The Fellowship\u2019s National Prayer Breakfast (NPB) as The Fellowship used it to bolster friendly dictators, right-wing allies, accused human-rights abusers, and others.<\/p>\n

Fellowship politics are seldom overt, and sometimes not even intentional. But operating in secrecy, among like-minded people, the results are inevitable. Secular and LBGTQ+ groups have warned Democrats for years about the dangers of helping The Fellowship.<\/p>\n

As one of very few Democrats still publicly associating with The Fellowship, Suozzi helps preserve the tattered bipartisan facade essential to its work. (At this year\u2019s Fellowship prayer breakfast, only two Democrats spoke, Reps. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), son of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Lou Correa (D-CA); Suozzi joined an on-stage singalong.)<\/p>\n

Having even just a few token Democrats gives events official-seeming status that The Fellowship exploits, especially in countries where access to members of the U.S. Congress is a liquid commodity.<\/p>\n

Leveraging that access, The Fellowship grows regional ministries and prayer networks that quietly glide politicians and nations toward right-wing policies and even theocracy.<\/p>\n

Suozzi and Moolenaar co-chair the weekly U.S. House prayer breakfasts, also ostensibly bipartisan but also facilitated by Republican Fellowship associates. (Side note: The Fellowship uses the title \u201cassociate\u201d for scores of operatives around the world it supports with administrative services and guidelines, serving as a clearinghouse for the donations they bring in to support their activities. Typically, associates minister to, or \u201cencourage,\u201d powerful politicians while supported by rich people who want access to those politicians or want someone to keep those politicians strong in the face of popular opposition. Sometimes, an associate\u2019s connection to The Fellowship is an open secret, but rarely to the public. The Florida House chaplain and his predecessor are good examples of how this works.)<\/p>\n

In January, Suozzi accompanied Moolenaar on a committee junket \u2014 even though Suozzi\u2019s not on the committee \u2014 as part of The Fellowship\u2019s campaign to boost Bukele.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by Fellowship leaders, Suozzi and Moolenaar helped The Fellowship launch a new Salvadoran prayer breakfast there. They lauded Bukele \u2014 whose violations of human and civil rights are well documented \u2014 suggesting God supports Bukele and urging the nation\u2019s leaders to start their own prayer groups.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Y]ou\u2019ve achieved a miracle,\u201d Suozzi said, addressing Bukele directly, \u201cthe miracle that\u2019s taken place in El Salvador.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil-rights groups say Bukele\u2019s miracle entailed suspending civil rights and imprisoning thousands of people.<\/p>\n

Suozzi met with dissidents the day before his remarks at the Salvadoran National Prayer Breakfast but doesn\u2019t appear to have articulated their concerns publicly.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, deportations from the U.S. to El Salvador in the first three months of this year roughly doubled from 2025, the Associated Press reported. Investigative reporters this month said Bukele has frozen their assets to punish them for reporting on administration corruption.<\/p>\n

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Suozzi\u2019s also given time to The Fellowship\u2019s National Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values (NSLF).<\/p>\n

And he follows in the footsteps of past Fellowship Democrats who seemed less comfortable with progressive Democrats pushing economic and social justice than he is with far-right Republicans cutting benefits for the needy and stripping LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights along with voting rights and civil rights.<\/p>\n

Last year, Suozzi and Rep. Tracey Mann (R-KS), a Fellowship veteran, appeared together on Fox to call for bipartisanship and reflect on Charlie Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

In 2024, as Fellowship evangelicals pressed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to support aid for Ukraine, Suozzi pushed Democrats to help Johnson survive as speaker for that purpose. He has assisted the efforts of The Fellowship\u2019s right-wing Ukraine point person, who has floated the dream of a biblically-based Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Suozzi last year told Roll Call that the last book he read was \u201cTurnaround\u201d by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), another longtime Fellowship insider. \u201cHe\u2019s a good guy,\u201d Suozzi said.<\/p>\n

Suozzi frequently co-sponsors legislation with Mann and other Fellowship Republicans. Outspoken against his party\u2019s left flank, even opposing Democrats\u2019 defensive gerrymandering, Suozzi stays mum about the right-wing efforts of Moolenaar and other Fellowship Republicans.<\/p>\n

Suozzi last year wrote an entire Wall Street Journal op-ed about then-mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. \u201cFor Democrats, Mamdani is a Wake-Up Call \u2014 and a Bad Example\u201d has since been deleted from Suozzi\u2019s campaign website.<\/p>\n

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Suozzi on Moolenaar: \u201cWe love each other. And we care about each other. And I know that everything that John does, he does from his heart, because he wants to do the right thing to serve his fellow human beings.\u201d \u2013 Jan. 19, 2026, remarks at El Salvador National Prayer Breakfast.<\/p>\n

Suozzi on Mamdani: \u201cI can not back a declared socialist with a thin resume to run the most complex city in America. We need leaders who will fight crime, not undermine the police. Who will create jobs, not harm the economy.\u201d \u2013 Oct. 29, 2025, post endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) for mayor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Instead of leveling public criticism against Fellowship Republicans, Suozzi in private lets them use his name on coveted breakfast invitations that empower oppressive right-wingers overseas. And he keeps The Fellowship\u2019s secrets.<\/p>\n

That includes the right-wing shadow diplomacy that C Street residents carry out there and at prayer breakfasts around the world.<\/p>\n

At the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast, Australian Member of Parliament David Hodgett got to meet Suozzi and Moolenaar, Hodgett disclosed in an Australian . Hodgett reported that he \u201creceived an invitation from The National Prayer Breakfast Host Committee.\u201d In fact, Fellowship associates choose most guests.<\/p>\n

Government filings show that the C Street Center is known by foreign nations as a nexus for lobbying, and has been used for that purpose, including during Suozzi\u2019s time there.<\/p>\n

The C Street donors who subsidize Suozzi\u2019s low-cost living arrangements remain unknown, but The Fellowship has supported C Street financially while getting millions of dollars from right-wing evangelicals. Franklin Graham\u2019s organization Samaritan\u2019s Purse link has reported donating to The Fellowship, but at the C Street address.<\/p>\n

Suozzi\u2019s Fellowship history<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not clear how long Suozzi has maintained a room at C Street.<\/p>\n

He came to Congress in 2017, living at first in an apartment with other members of Congress and staff. A Fellowship document I obtained shows he was at the National Prayer Breakfast by February 2018.<\/p>\n

In October 2019, he and Moolenaar co-chaired the NSLF, the Fellowship student program that churns up potential congressional interns and Fellowship stars.<\/p>\n

Four months later, co-chairing the February 2020 National Prayer Breakfast, Suozzi and Moolenaar referred to rooming together.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Rob Schenck, a former Christian nationalist who once ministered to the right in Washington, told me that Suozzi said at the time that he was living at C Street. And didn\u2019t want people to know it.<\/p>\n

This was the week after the 2020 breakfast.<\/p>\n

Schenck met Suozzi on Feb. 10, 2020, on a train. Schenck spotted Suozzi reading a book by the prayer breakfast\u2019s keynote speaker. (It was Arthur Brooks\u2019s \u201cLove Your Enemies,\u201d the command of Jesus that President Donald Trump publicly rejected at the breakfast.)<\/p>\n

Suozzi and Schenck discussed C Street. Suozzi confided that he lived there, secretly. \u201cHe said to me, I don\u2019t tell anybody this,\u201d Schenck told me.<\/p>\n

Schenck paraphrased Suozzi\u2019s remarks: \u201cI don\u2019t tell anybody this, but, you know, I\u2019ve been, I bunked up at C Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Schenck hadn\u2019t publicly broken with the right. (Two years later, Schenck would make headlines as a \u201cdissenting evangelical\u201d revealing how he and his \u201cstealth missionaries\u201d had ministered to Supreme Court justices; pushing the court to the right.)<\/p>\n

But on that day in 2020, as Amtrak sped them from New York to Washington, Schenck was still known as an evangelical minister to powerful conservatives. That\u2019s why Suozzi shared his secret.<\/p>\n

I asked Schenck whether he thought Suozzi used living at C Street to establish his bona fides with a minister known then as a right-wing evangelical.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes,\u201d Schenck said. \u201cHe knew I was an evangelical minister. He knew what I had done on the Hill. And he was kind of assuring me, \u2018Hey, I may be a Democrat, but, you know, I\u2019m in the family,\u2019 so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suozzi said Schenck wanted to keep C Street quiet, to have it both ways. \u201cHe said, you know, I don\u2019t talk about it, but: \u2018Good experience,\u2019 or words that effect,\u201d meaning: Life at C Street.<\/p>\n

Schenck said, \u201cIt was just, he was trying to assure me, you know, \u2018I\u2019m in. I\u2019m in the family; good people, you know. I live both worlds.\u2019 That sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suozzi wanted to keep it that way. He was \u201cguarded\u201d about C Street, according to Schenck. \u201cHe was protective of that information,\u201d Schenck said. \u201cHe definitely didn\u2019t want that order of, you know, publicity. He wanted just to say to me, \u2018I\u2019m a good guy.\u2019<\/p>\n

The men stayed in touch for a bit, by email. \u201cHe was surprising to me,\u201d Schrenck said. \u201cI thought of him as, you know, stereotypical, progressive Democrat, and then realized, wow, he\u2019s got some conservative sensibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for C Street, Schenck said, \u201cHe was connected there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, Suozzi opted not to run for re-election, running instead, unsuccessfully, for New York governor.<\/p>\n

By the time he returned to Congress in early 2024, the House was reimbursing members for lodging expenses in Washington. A House disbursement shows Suozzi paying $800 per month for lodging starting in March 2024.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible Suozzi never gave up his C Street bunk while he was out of Congress. Or he found an open room there within two months of returning to Washington. Or C Street kept his old room vacant for him.<\/p>\n

Whatever happened, he and Moolenaar are still roommates.<\/p>\n

House rules don\u2019t require members to disclose where they stay in Washington or to whom they make out their rent checks, but the quarterly disclosures show Suozzi paying what others at C Street pay, including Moolenaar.<\/p>\n

The Michigan Republican also paid $800 per month the last two years. But an earlier House shows Moolenaar paying just $600 per month in 2023, suggesting that Suozzi, his roommate, paid a similar rate prior to his hiatus.<\/p>\n

According to his alumni magazine, Suozzi got involved with the prayer breakfast specifically to connect with Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only solve complicated problems when you have people of goodwill who are willing to sit down with one another and work together to try and find common ground,\u201d Suozzi claimed, although American history is replete with counter-examples and Suozzi\u2019s own history reveals a different approach toward the left.<\/p>\n

(The myth of prayer yielding productive unity is a long-standing canard of The Fellowship, a one-way ratchet used to move moveable, or sympathetic, Democrats.)<\/p>\n

Suozzi\u2019s ties to The Fellowship don\u2019t appear to have lapsed at any point, even during his year out of Congress.<\/p>\n

Suozzi\u2019s breakfasts<\/h3>\n

The Fellowship document I obtained, a spreadsheet of attendees, shows that Suozzi attended the 2018 National Prayer Breakfast solo. (Every member of Congress is invited.) And it lists who else was there.<\/p>\n

The spreadsheet shows that Suozzi shared his table with four guests invited by Doug Burleigh, a longtime Fellowship leader focused on Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics. (Burleigh achieved brief notoriety when it came out that his 2017 guests included Russian operatives Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin.)<\/p>\n

By 2019, Suozzi\u2019s roommate, Moolenaar, was part of C Street in some fashion. A picture posted online that year shows Moolenaar hosting Ohio Christian University students at C Street, along with Donna Rice Hughes.<\/p>\n

When Suozzi and Moolenaar co-chaired the 2020 breakfast, Suozzi wasn\u2019t just reading a script. He helped The Fellowship put together the program; he said he had asked Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) to participate.<\/p>\n

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It fell to Suozzi and Moolenaar that year to address Trump using the event to flaunt his acquittal by the Senate, reject the teachings of Jesus, and eviscerate Fellowship claims about the unifying power of prayer. The first-hand evidence of Trump\u2019s performance left Suozzi unswayed in his certainty about faith.<\/p>\n

The Fellowship\u2019s religious claims are never disproved, history suggests, just yet to be proved.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody seems to get it yet,\u201d Suozzi said after Trump left. \u201cBut we\u2019re not gonna give up, are we? \u2026 [W]e\u2019ve gotta keep on pushing the message of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was six years ago. Suozzi\u2019s prayer prescription appears even less supported by evidence today.<\/p>\n

Not only has Trump \u2014 and arguably The Fellowship \u2014 made religion in America more divisive, The Fellowship itself is now in a legal battle with its own breakfast spinoff. The fight is almost funny: Two Christian groups, who claim prayer breakfasts are unifying, now divided by them.<\/p>\n

Also in 2020, Suozzi and Moolenaar hosted a Zoom meeting for that year\u2019s NSLF, speaking with foreign students. One posted on LinkedIn about being sponsored for the event by Fatmir Mediu, an Albanian government official and longtime Fellowship insider.<\/p>\n

The two roommates also co-chair the weekly Capitol Hill Fellowship prayer breakfasts. \u201cToday\u2019s breakfast is really an extension of what John and I do every Thursday morning at 8am in the Capitol,\u201d Suozzi said at the 2020 NPB. \u201cWe gather with our House colleagues \u2026 for our weekly House prayer breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belying the ecumenical veneer of their breakfasts, Suozzi and Moolenaar made their prayer sectarian: \u201cChrist, our lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suozzi would co-chair the national breakfast again, on video in 2021 due to COVID.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he and Moolenaar were listed as part of the sham House committee on the annual invitation that makes it appear that Congress runs the event. Those invitations help Fellowship allies overseas convince local media of their importance in the U.S., building their prestige at home and increasing their value to monied interests seeking connections to U.S. members of Congress.<\/p>\n

Things got interesting in 2023. Suozzi was no longer in Congress. The prayer breakfast had split in two. Nevertheless, The Fellowship\u2019s iteration of the breakfast \u2014 same place, same time \u2014 was once again co-chaired by Suozzi.<\/p>\n

Suozzi didn\u2019t co-chair in 2024, but the invitation bore his name again, a federal filing shows. His name, too, graced the card attendees got.<\/p>\n

Guests got that welcome card the day after Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) issued a press release demanding answers from The Fellowship about its prayer breakfasts and ties to Uganda\u2019s LGBTQ+ death penalty. Some of the people behind that law were among the guests Suozzi invited and welcomed to that year\u2019s breakfast.<\/p>\n

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The same thing happened the following year: Suozzi didn\u2019t co-chair in 2025, but his name was on the , which aren\u2019t made public unless they\u2019re obtained by journalists or appear in government filings related, for instance, to visa applications or foreign-agent registrations.<\/p>\n

As usual, Fellowship insiders in other countries puffed up their status at home last year by saying they\u2019d been invited by Congress or even the president.<\/p>\n

When local media in Bangladesh followed up, the U.S. embassy issued a denial. Journalists trying to sort it out ultimately identified Suozzi and others as signing the invitation.<\/p>\n

This year, again, Trump used the breakfast to reject the unifying power of prayer that Suozzi swears by. Religious people, Trump said, shouldn\u2019t vote for Democrats.<\/p>\n

All but three congressional Democrats had already got the message. Jackson co-chaired. Correa read from Scripture. Suozzi joined the choir. That was it.<\/p>\n

The prior month, though, in El Salvador, Suozzi and other Democrats were front and center at Bukele\u2019s breakfast. That trip had The Fellowship written all over it, literally, in the case of an itinerary I obtained.<\/p>\n

One event was explicitly listed as \u201c\u2018C Street\u2019 format.\u201d The trip\u2019s travelers presumably knew what that meant.<\/p>\n

Suozzi wasn\u2019t the only member of Congress who didn\u2019t sit on the committee but did sit down for Bukele\u2019s prayer breakfast. As I\u2019ve previously reported, the itinerary included non-members of Congress active in The Fellowship.<\/p>\n

Lobbyist Manuel Espina, a past ambassador from Guatemala to the U.S., was there. (The Fellowship tends to stick with official honorifics for its insiders, long after they become lobbyists.)<\/p>\n

Espina, as the itinerary indicates, is now a lobbyist for Continental Strategy. That firm is part of ongoing efforts, orbiting The Fellowship, to pump U.S. money into regional companies that have supported The Fellowship.<\/p>\n

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Espina\u2019s also the founder of Guatemala\u2019s National Prayer Breakfast and a key architect of Fellowship machinations that rescued Guatemala\u2019s evangelical president by taking out a UN anti-corruption task force.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Espina and then-President Jimmy Morales, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and other Fellowship insiders, at C Street in an undated photo. Suozzi posed with Espina the following year, as Fellowship efforts to gut the UN task force was under way.<\/p>\n

If Suozzi didn\u2019t know at the time that Morales\u2019s government was working to undermine the task force, he probably should have. The subject came up more than once at House committee hearings Suozzi attended prior to his picture with Espina.<\/p>\n

Espina\u2019s colleague from the Guatemalan branch of the National Prayer Breakfast, Willy G\u00f3mez, appears in the January 2026 trip itinerary as a \u201cmember\u201d of the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, as highlighted in the excerpt above. The other two members are straight from C Street.<\/p>\n

Marty Sherman is the guy who runs C Street. Tim Coe is Sherman\u2019s college buddy and the son of deceased Fellowship leader Doug Coe. Together with Tim\u2019s brother, David, Tim-David-and-Marty are practically spoken of as one word as Fellowship leaders, a Fellowship source once told me.<\/p>\n

Why was half the C Street leadership at a congressional meeting ostensibly about China in El Salvador with the president? The itinerary doesn\u2019t offer even a token explanation. But it\u2019s not hard to guess.<\/p>\n

The Salvador leg of the junket had little to do with China. China wasn\u2019t mentioned at the breakfast. The Fellowship members of Congress didn\u2019t sing the praises of America\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n

The real influence was Jesus. And C Street.<\/p>\n

Moolenaar said \u201cwe treasure\u201d the Declaration of Independence, but didn\u2019t say why, and spent more time extolling the virtues of prayer breakfasts.<\/p>\n

Suozzi told Bukele and other Salvadoran politicians \u2014 except opposition leaders barred from the breakfast \u2014 not about the beauty of dissent and free speech or the wonders of checks and balances, but about the importance of praying together.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is such a wonderful occurrence that you are celebrating this first prayer breakfast like this, bringing together so many people of different faiths and different political beliefs, all united in the spirit of prayer to make your country and our world a better place\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t underestimate the power of getting together with each other in small groups, of spending time with each other, of getting to know each other, of building relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Note: Opposition leaders were excluded.) That\u2019s the Fellowship model for building influence; unaccountable, outside public view.<\/p>\n

As Schenck explained to me, the U.S. prayer breakfast is for spotlight-seekers, while C Street is for the publicity-shy. The Salvadoran breakfast blended the two, a stage outside the U.S. spotlight, with Suozzi navigating the overlap awkwardly as he and his fellows sang The Fellowship\u2019s praises, without naming it or divulging many details.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in the same house in Washington, DC,\u201d Moolenaar said, without saying which house, \u201cand we also have dinner together on Tuesday nights and some of our colleagues will tell you more about those dinners.\u201d<\/p>\n

C Street is known for its Tuesday group dinners, but not much was said about them after Suozzi redirected Moolenaar, saying: \u201cI think you should tell everybody about our prayer breakfast and what happens in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, the closest anyone came to the Tuesday dinners was Lee, the Utah Republican. He said, \u201cWhen we meet every Tuesday night, we cease to be senators or congressmen. We cease to be Republicans or Democrats. We gather as children of Jesus, as brothers and sisters in Jesus.\u201d It was a C Street telltale, but Lee only shared it in Spanish.<\/p>\n

No one said \u201cC Street\u201d in any language.<\/p>\n

Jan. 19, 2026 \u2014 El Salvador National Prayer Breakfast<\/h3>\n

Suozzi\u2019s Jan. 20 Instagram post about the trip didn\u2019t mention the previous day\u2019s prayer breakfast or Bukele.<\/p>\n

A week later, amid horror over the death of Renee Good, Suozzi apologized for funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but said nothing about having just celebrated Bukele, who provided ICE with torture cells, offered to hold Americans there for Trump, and taunted a U.S. judge who tried to block deportation flights.<\/p>\n

Moolenaar\u2019s committee only issued its press release about the trip after I inquired.<\/p>\n

The power of prayer<\/h3>\n

Suozzi and Moolenaar kicked off the 2020 NPB with a running shtick \u2014 juxtaposing their backgrounds. Typically in these Fellowship comedy routines, the Democrat is the punchline; urban weirdness juxtaposed with wholesome Republican normalcy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have 15,000 farmers in my district,\u201d Moolenaar told the audience.<\/p>\n

Suozzi took the handoff: \u201cI know a guy named Farmer.\u201d (Suozzi represents parts of Queens and Long Island, which has farmers.)<\/p>\n

There were no jokes about Suozzi\u2019s constituents making twice what Moolenaar\u2019s do. But there were more jokes at the expense of Suozzi and his constituents.<\/p>\n

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Moolenaar: \u201cIn my district, the kids have the first day of deer-hunting season off from school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suozzi: \u201cIn my district the kids have off for Yom Kippur.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Moolenaar redeemed Suozzi, absolving him of any New York weirdness. \u201cDespite all of our differences,\u201d Moolenaar said, \u201cTom and I are good friends. In fact, we\u2019re roommates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suozzi added, \u201cWe even share a bathroom together. He\u2019s very neat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Suozzi telling us, it\u2019s virtually impossible to know whether C Street Republicans have moved Suozzi further right. History suggests they\u2019ve tried, as they have with others.<\/p>\n

According to Suozzi, Moolenaar\u2019s politics \u2014 stripping reproductive rights, expanding anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, not to mention immigration policies, voting rights, election denial, and Trump\u2019s illegal wars \u2014 come from a good place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that everything John does, he does from his heart,\u201d Suozzi said as they celebrated Bukele\u2019s presidency, \u201cbecause he wants to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suozzi is also friendly with Bishop Robert Barron, a Fox pundit who\u2019s on a Trump religious commission and spoke at Trump\u2019s \u201cRededicate 250\u201d event celebrating theocracy and Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

Barron has also appeared with Ben Shapiro and on a Tucker Carlson episode about \u201cthe foolishness of atheism.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an April 14 op-ed, Barron lamented persecution of Christians by secularists. (That same day Barron found himself defending Pope Leo XIV against Trump calling the pope weak on crime.)<\/p>\n

Suozzi responded to Trump\u2019s critique of the pope by blaming normalization of Trump, without noting his own normalization: Celebrating Trump at prayer breakfasts and claiming prayer will bring unity.<\/p>\n

Suozzi\u2019s defense of the pope offered an illuminating contrast with Suozzi\u2019s call for Democrats not to defend much less powerful people here in the U.S.<\/p>\n

He blamed 2024 Democratic losses on Democrats defending transgender people. He called transgender girls \u201cbiological boys\u201d and lamented the party\u2019s attempts to be \u201cpolitically correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same interview, Suozzi amplified Republican narratives about \u201canarchy on college campuses, defund the police, biological boys playing in girls\u2019 sports, and a general attack on traditional values.\u201d He didn\u2019t say whose traditional values.<\/p>\n

Before Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) endorsed Suozzi in 2024, she reportedly grilled him on his commitment to reproductive rights and got him to pledge not to run ads against his own party.<\/p>\n

The 2024 Democratic National Convention tapped Suozzi to talk tough about the border and undocumented immigrants. Suozzi then backed the 2025 Laken Riley Act that weaponized Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Later, of course, Suozzi joined in the right-wing fear-mongering about Mamdani, even after his own party chose Mamdani as its mayoral candidate.<\/p>\n

Suozzi does reliably defend one group: Christians. In a video during the Jan. 6 attacks, as self-described Christians rampaged through the Capitol brandishing Christian imagery and slogans, Suozzi fretted about \u201canarchists on the left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe have a major problem in our country with white nationalism, white supremacy, and far-right militia groups, and we have concerns about anarchists on the left, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He didn\u2019t mention Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

I asked Schenck whether his gradual shift, seeing Suozzi as more conservative than he did at first, might have been due to C Street\u2019s influence. Schenck told me he couldn\u2019t say that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know him long enough to see a trajectory,\u201d Schenck said. \u201cI read it as just getting to know him better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Americans know something is deeply wrong. They\u2019re not imagining it<\/a><\/p>\n

This post originally ran on The F**king News. Read the original post here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Democrat kept secret his low-rent lodging at a right-wing Christian townhouse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[279,280,281,282,268,283,284,285],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-c-street","tag-christianity","tag-fellowship-foundation","tag-national-prayer-breakfast","tag-politics","tag-prayer-breakfasts","tag-the-family","tag-tom-suozzi"],"yoast_head":"\nTom Suozzi lives at C Street, controversial Christian center behind National Prayer Breakfasts - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=153\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Suozzi lives at C Street, controversial Christian center behind National Prayer Breakfasts - Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Democrat kept secret his low-rent lodging at a right-wing Christian townhouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=153\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-29T10:10:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"23 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"headline\":\"Tom Suozzi lives at C Street, controversial Christian center behind National Prayer Breakfasts\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T10:10:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153\"},\"wordCount\":4648,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/79ac72af722195c570e6015387ef146f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"C Street\",\"Christianity\",\"Fellowship Foundation\",\"National Prayer Breakfast\",\"Politics\",\"Prayer Breakfasts\",\"The Family\",\"Tom Suozzi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153\",\"name\":\"Tom Suozzi lives at C Street, controversial Christian center behind National Prayer Breakfasts - Relocation Across America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/79ac72af722195c570e6015387ef146f.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T10:10:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=153#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/79ac72af722195c570e6015387ef146f.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/79ac72af722195c570e6015387ef146f.jpg\",\"width\":1692,\"height\":1142,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 17: Rep. 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