On Wednesday night, Jefferson City, Missouri was hit with a nasty storm that killed at least three people and left damage and debris all over the place.

If you were a politician representing that area, it would be a no-brainer to travel back home as quickly as possible so that you can meet with emergency personnel and coordinate a response to help your constituents.

So where were Rep. Vicky Hartzler, whose constituents include those three people who died, and Sen. Josh Hawley?

They were sitting on a panel Thursday morning with Religious Right leader Tony Perkins, literally offering thoughts and prayers about the disaster during the Christian “Watchmen on the Wall” conference, instead of (at the very least) making some useful phone calls from their D.C. offices.

You can see the segment around the 22:00 mark here. (It’s not properly embedding below.) Hartzler said they were trying to reach the families in question, but that’s a far cry from actually being there for her constituents.

While both politicians sent useless prayers from a distance, they carved out time to denounce LGBTQ people and the Equality Act.

As soon as the prayer was done, Hawley had to leave for a hearing on disaster aid (that was scheduled before the Missouri storm), while Hartzler stuck around to answer more questions about how adding non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people to federal law would be a disaster to society.

Because that’s where her priorities are.

None of this is surprising — Hawley and Hartzler are known for their faith-based bigotry — but it’s appalling that they didn’t even think about canceling on this event in the wake of a disaster that affected their very state. Instead they spent their time denouncing fictional attacks on “religious freedom” while using their own Christian privilege to denounce marginalized groups.

(Thanks to Kyle for the link)

