Republicans object to remarks at National Prayer Service

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., late on Wednesday criticized Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde’s remarks at the National Prayer Service. She hijacked the service to promote her radical ideology, Johnson said.

What prompted this backlash? The head of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump to have mercy on immigrants living in this country rather than deport them. She also asked him to show mercy on gay and transgender youths who she said were scared. Budde said she hoped Trump would show the mercy of God to others after feeling the providential hand of God in surviving an assassination attempt.

Has the president responded? Trump wrote in a Wednesday statement that Budde owed the nation an apology. He claimed she’d failed to mention how so many illegal immigrants were pouring into the United States and killing Americans. He found her to be nasty, uncompelling, and unintelligent.

Speaker Johnson agreed that her behavior was shameful. He added that Budde took an opportunity to unify the nation and used it to sow division. The Speaker has said he is a Christian, belonging to a church in the Southern Baptist denomination.

What has Budde had to say about this? Budde told NPR that she would not apologize to Trump. She added that she’d tried to ask the president gently to show mercy and that it was dangerous to paint immigrants and transgender youths in broad strokes. WORLD reached out to Budde for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how the White House has ordered a shutdown of all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and offices.