Republican Sen. David Perdue today joked about praying for President Obama's days to be short.
His comments came during the Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference, a major meeting of conservative Christians,
the Daily Beast reported.
The senator from Georgia told attendees to pray for Obama.
"We should pray for him like Psalms 109:8 says: May his days be short and let another have his office," he said.
And the Daily Beast noted the rest of the Bible passage is "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes," leading some to accuse Perdue of praying for Obama's death.
Perdue said he had no regrets about his remarks, and said it was "really unfortunate" people assumed that's what he meant,
Politico reported.
"The way we set it up was to make sure that it wasn't the case," he said. "There was no intention to be derogatory at all. It was a little humor."
The White House later reacted to Perdue's comments.
"I did make note of Sen. Perdue's comments," press secretary Josh Earnest said. "As Sen. Perdue considers whether or not an apology is appropriate, there a variety of other Scripture he might consult."