On Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson seemed to post and then delete a tweet about Hurricane Dorian and how it was kept from making landfall on the East Coast.
In an apparent tweet she said “Millions of us seeing Dorian turn away from land is not a wacky idea; it is a creative use of the power of mind.”
After seeming to delete the tweet, Williamson made another post afterwards, offering prayers to people in the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Her original post received instant backlash on the internet.
The critical response to her initial tweet led to Williamson defending herself in later posts. She said that “prayer is a power of the mind and it is neither bizarre nor unintelligent.” She also said that millions of other people are praying that Dorian doesn’t hit land and that people mocking those prayers is part of the reason why the “Left” has lost voters.
So far, Hurricane Dorian appears to be avoiding much of Florida and has not done the damage it was initially anticipated to do to the state. The storm is now moving northwest at 8 mph and is currently on Georgia’s southeastern coast, approximately 150 miles south of Charleston S.C.
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Write to Josiah Bates at josiah.bates@time.com