Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dinged Russian President Vladimir Putin's record on gay rights Thursday. Pelosi was speaking with reporters about a controversial op-ed the Russian president had published Wednesday evening in The New York Times.
"What I found interesting was the closing," Pelosi said. "He says when we pray to God he judges us all as — I don't know exactly was his words are — but he says that we are all God's children. I think that's great. I hope it applies to gays and lesbians in Russia as well."
Putin made his comments in the New York Times Wednesday evening in an attack on President Obama saying the United States was not an especially exceptional nation.
"I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States' policy is 'what makes America different. It's what makes us exceptional.' It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation," Putin wrote. "There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."