Bishop who called on Trump to show mercy: 'I have had people wish me dead'

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said this week she has had "people wish me dead" after she called on President Trump to "have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now" during an inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral.

“I have had people wish me dead. I’m not sure they have threatened to kill me, but they seemed to be pleased if I met my eternal destiny sooner, rather than later,” the Episcopal bishop said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow” show.

“And I would simply say, I was trying actually to encourage a different kind of conversation, that you can certainly disagree with me, you can disagree what I have said or did, but could we, as Americans and fellow children of God, speak to one another with respect? I would offer the same to you.”

She also urged those who disagree with her to do so with respect for her life.

“I would listen to your views and I would honor them, but we can — we don’t have to go to the highest extremes of contempt when we are in a position of disagreement,” she said.

“And I think, if we could get that back as a country, we would go a long way in being able to work together to address the many problems that we face.”

Despite pushback over her call for Trump to show mercy to migrants and LGBTQ children, Budde has refused to apologize to the president and other Republican critics who felt her comments were inappropriate.

“I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others,” Budde, 65, told Time on Wednesday. She told NPR similarly, “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize.”

Trump after the service said it could have been better and ramped up his criticism hours later.

“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,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, adding that her service was “uninspiring” and “nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

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