The reverend who called on President Trump to have mercy on transgender children and immigrants during a prayer service for his inauguration said in a new interview she would not apologize for her remarks.
“I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde told Time magazine in an interview published Wednesday afternoon.
The interview comes after Trump criticized Budde as a “Radical Left hard-line Trump hater” and called on her to apologize for her “nasty” remarks at the National Cathedral prayer service on Tuesday.
“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard-line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” Trump said in a lengthy Truth Social post Wednesday morning.
“She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions,” the president added. “It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one.”
Trump also called on her and the church to apologize to him.
“She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!”
Budde, in the interview with Time, pushed back on some of Trump’s characterizations of her, saying, “I don’t hate President Trump. I strive not to hate anyone, and I dare say that I am not of the ‘radical left’ either, whatever that means. That is not who I am.”
On whether she is good at her job, Budde said, “That is for other people to judge, and so he is certainly entitled to his opinion.”
Hours before Trump took to social media, Budde made a plea to Trump during her sermon as he sat in the first pew at the service.
“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, transgender children, Democratic, Republican, independent families — some who fear for their lives,” she said.
“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” she added.
During her comments about migrants, Budde noted migrant workers “pay taxes” and are “faithful members” of U.S. churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, arguing their children “fear their parents are going to be taken away.” And she called on Trump to aid people fleeing war zones and persecution.
Budde also told Trump that people in the U.S. are scared of his presidency.
Asked whether she wants to encourage others to push back on Trump’s policies, Budde told Time, “I would love to have people present another alternative, yes, and to bring compassion and breadth into our public discourse.”
