The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington explained on The View why she lectured President Donald Trump about newcomers and LGBT individuals during a speech at a post-Inauguration Day service at the National Cathedral.
“Knowing that a lot of folks, as I said, in our nation right now are truly scared, I wanted to take the chance in the context of that of support for unification, to say we need to treat everyone with respect, and we need to be generous. I was trying to store the tale that is so, so contentious and controversial and in which people, true people, are being harmed, ” Budde told the ABC show in a Wednesday interview.
The View co-host Ana Navarro praised the priest for being “so gentle ” and “so respectful” in her message.
Co-host Sara Haines asked her about Trump ripping her worship services as “not a fine company ” and calling her a “Radical Left tough line Trump bigot. ” She even noted that Trump said the priest and her temple owed “the community an explanation. ”
“Given your function, it does n’t appear surprising that you would speak out for the disadvantaged as anyone who has read the Bible and knows the route of Jesus, but do you think your information is being misconstrued and politicized? ” Haines asked her in a ball issue.
“How could it not be politicized? We’re in a hyper-political environment. One of the things I caution about is the tradition of contempt in which we live that soon rushes to the worst possible interpretations of what people are saying and to place them in categories such as the ones you just described, ” Budde responded. “That’s part of the air we breathe then and I was trying to speak a fact that I felt needed to be said, but to do it as courteous and form a manner as I had. ”
“And even, to take other voices into the discussion, which tones that had not been heard in the open space for some time, ” she added.
In a Tuesday speech, Budde urged Trump to “have kindness upon the people in our country ” and told him that many people were “scared today. ”
She said that “there are gay, gay and transgender kids in Democrat, Republican, and separate people, some who fear for their lives — and the people, the people who pick our crops and clear our business buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals. ”
“ I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here, ” she added.
In a Truth Social post several hours later, Trump criticized the bishop.
“She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way, ” he wrote in the social media post. “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. 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. 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. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology! ”
The president attended the National Cathedral’s interfaith Service of Prayer for the Nation, along with first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and his wife, Usha, on Tuesday.
Budde was elected the ninth Bishop of Washington at the Washington National Cathedral in 2011, becoming Washington ’s first female diocesan bishop.
She had previously criticized President Trump in 2020 when she disagreed with the National Guard and law enforcement clearing LaFayette Square ahead of him speaking in front of St. John’s Church during the George Floyd protests. She also removed stained-glass panes honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the Washington National Cathedral.
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Inside the National Cathedral’s gift shop, the cathedral has several gift items with the logo “House of Prayer for All People ” in rainbow colors to celebrate “God’s LGBTQIA + children. ”
“As the final resting place of Matthew Shepard, this Cathedral is committed to being a House of Prayer for All People, no exceptions, ” a description of a Pride shirt in the church’s online store read.
